BEIJING—China on Saturday sought to soothe tensions over its South China Sea claims, saying it will avoid the use of force in the region as the United States ponders sending warships close to territory claimed by the Asian giant. Speaking at the Xiangshan regional defense forum in Beijing, Fan Changlong, vice chair of China’s Central […]
China’s relations with several Southeast Asian countries, especially the Philippines and Vietnam who have competing claims in the South China Sea, have been strained by Beijing’s increasingly assertive tone in an area through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. Beijing’s move last year to step up the creation of artificial islands, which it […]
A Chinese naval patrol around an outpost in the Spratly islands, Jan. 25, 2014. (File photo/Xinhua) China’s navy and air force should prepare to respond to a potential US operation to send warships within 12 nautical miles around the outposts China has built on disputed islands in the South China Sea, says a saber-rattling piece […]
Thucydides loomed large over last month’s summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. Both noted the ancient Greek historian’s insight about the potential for conflict between rising and ruling nations in the context of managing U.S.-China relations. Their remarks, however, suggest a misunderstanding of the very point Thucydides made that could most help avoid […]
Subject to competing claims by China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam, more than half the world’s merchant tonnage plies back and forth through this navigable chokehold between the Western Pacific and Indian oceans, as Robert Kaplan, a former member of the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board, writes in his book, Asia’s Cauldron, The South […]
The Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh. — File Photo HA NOI (VNS) — China’s activities in the so-called Sansha city have no legal foundation and do not change the fact that the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago belongs to Viet Nam, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh. Binh made the remark at the […]
The Philippines wants Southeast Asian nations to discuss China’s proposal of holding naval drills with the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries in the South China Sea. “The Philippine position will be discussed in the ASEAN. Hintayin na lang po natin ‘yung magiging discussion na ito,” Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said when asked […]
25 TWEET It may be the rainy season, but things are heating up in the South China Sea. The U.S. and China have been locked in a battle of words since reports surfaced in early October that the U.S. Navy was ready to challenge China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea by sending a […]
BEIJING (AP) — China hosted Southeast Asian defense ministers Friday in a bid to burnish its reputation in a region wary of Beijing’s territorial ambitions, while expectations grow that the U.S. might directly challenge Chinese claims in the South China Sea. The meeting in Beijing marks the first time China has hosted such a gathering. […]
Vietnam is accusing a Chinese vessel of attacking and sinking a fishing boat near the disputed Paracel Islands, days after the Chinese government insisted that territories in the South China Sea were not international waters, but belonged to China. The Associated Press reports that the fishing vessel sank near the Paracel Islands, leaving the ten […]