STATE DEPARTMENT — U.S. and Chinese diplomats meet in Washington Wednesday for a security and economic dialogue expected to include rival territorial claims to the South China Sea. China is modernizing its navy and increasing patrols in the disputed waters of the South China Sea – where Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan are all […]
TOKYO — China’s “coercive” behaviour in waters around islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with Japan is dangerous and could trigger an incident, Tokyo said in a new defence paper Tuesday. At a cabinet meeting, hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ministers adopted the white paper, the first annual report on Japan’s […]
Two Chinese vessels have been spotted again in the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off northern Philippines, days after it was reported that the ships have left the area, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. “Yesterday [Sunday], we received a report from the Philippine Navy confirming that Chinese ships are back in Bajo de Masinloc,” […]
A verbal tussle in a Regional Security Forum in Brunei earlier this week did not stop Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario from inviting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit Manila for “consultations.” “I indicated to him that that perhaps it’s timely for him to do this because I have been to Beijing three times […]
The Chinese are taught from grade school that the entire South China Sea is theirs. Textbooks carry an “ancient map” with nine dashes in a U-shape denoting the outer limits of the sea, skirting the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, some islands of Indonesia, and Vietnam. Thirteenth-century-old, the Chinese map purportedly proves that “we were there first.” […]
The government wants to find mutually beneficial solutions that promote peace and development in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and to maintain close relations with Japan and the Philippines, a Taiwanese academic said. At a panel discussion at the Washington-based Hudson Institute on Friday, Song Yann-huei (宋燕輝) said that while the US […]
TAIPEI – Taiwan’s coastguards said Monday that Taipei had staged a live-fire drill within a hotly-contested island chain in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), in a move that risks stoking regional tensions. More than 2,000 rounds of ammunition … http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/04/22/13/taiwan-stages-live-fire-drill-contested-spratlys
A Chinese naval task force, including its most modern amphibious ship, a guided-missile destroyer, and two frigates, was recently sighted operating off James Shoal, 50 miles off the coast of Malaysia. James Shoal is claimed by Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as Taiwan. The appearance of the Chinese task force in these […]
By Ralph Jennings, Christian Science Monitor, 3/22/13 Taiwan says Japan is set to give it fishing rights to waters around a set of disputed islands. That could mean that Japan wants Taiwan on its side in the struggle against China over the disputed ocean. Japan is ready to open a contested tract of the East […]