Tag Archives: Spratlys

Chinese military building artificial island

MANILA, Philippines – China plans to build a $5-billion artificial island envisioned to be a ”super aircraft carrier” in the Spratlys within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The online news site Qianzhan.com reported that the No. 9 Design and Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corp. has come up with a proposed design […]

East Sea: Be careful with China’s “win-win” plot

VietNamNet: If Vietnam brings the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), what steps should we take? Dr. Ngo Huu Phuoc: To bring the case to the ITLOS, we need to prepare a file for the lawsuit. The documents are compiled by the government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs […]

Countries Around South China Sea Bolster Claims With Island Outposts

MANILA–In many ways, the towns on the atolls of the South China Sea are just like communities elsewhere: They have houses, post offices, schools, health clinics, and citizens who use them. But the Chinese, Philippine and Vietnamese settlements are unusual in at least one way: They were all planted on once-empty slivers of land to […]

Beijing’s dangerous arrogance in the South China Sea

China’s current behaviour vis-à-vis its South China Sea neighbours is aggressive, arrogant and smacks of Han chauvinism and ethnocentrism. Far from being an expression of national pride, it is giving patriotism a bad name. Patriotic Hongkongers should recognise it for what it is: a dangerous ploy. Not only has Beijing bared expansionist teeth to Vietnam […]

Nanda: Standoff in the South China Sea

China claims sovereignty over almost 80 percent of the South China Sea, which is rich in oil and gas and fisheries and is a busy waterway for world trade. Territorial disputes there as well as in the East China Sea have pitted China against several neighboring countries. Although China has avowed a desire to have […]

Pinoys, Vietnamese join anti-China protest as PH lawmaker says Hanoi eyeing case in UN tribunal

MANILA – (11:31PM)  Several hundred Filipino and Vietnamese protesters united in a march on Friday, demanding that China stop oil drilling in disputed South China Sea waters, as a Filipino lawmaker revealed Hanoi officials were mulling over filing a separate case against China – similar to what Manila filed in 2013 – over their maritime […]

Beijing adopts contrasting approaches in South China Sea spats

China is adopting very different approaches to disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines in the contested South China Sea, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese. On May 4, Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships engaged in a tense standoff near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the […]

South China Sea Clash: Asia’s Dangerous Game

Collisions between ships of Vietnam and China following the latter’s installation of a deep water oil rig in the disputed South China Sea mark a dangerous escalation of simmering tensions. Simultaneous to this fracas near the contested Paracel Islands, maritime authorities of the Philippines have arrested Chinese fishermen close to another coveted portion of the […]

South China Sea becoming ‘boiling pot’ amid rising tensions, analysts say

The escalating stand-offs between China and Vietnam, and between Beijing and Manila, will push Southeast Asian nations to build up their maritime capabilities, resulting in heightened tensions in the South China Sea, observers say. The nations were also likely to embrace a stronger United States presence in the region to Beijing’s dismay, they said, pointing […]

Intl community should never accept China’s behavior in South China Sea

Chinese and Vietnamese patrol ships are squaring off in the South China Sea—a situation which could develop into a military clash if one false step is taken. It is, therefore, important for both nations to exercise restraint. Over the last several days, many Chinese and Vietnamese ships rammed into each other near the Paracel Islands […]