HANOI, Vietnam — China on Wednesday moved an oil rig out of waters claimed by Hanoi after two months of drilling that triggered a near-breakdown in ties between the neighbors and led to deadly protests in Vietnam. Withdrawing the rig from near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea reduces the immediate risk of […]
Editor’s Note: Please see previous works from our “Weapons of War” series including: Five NATO Weapons of War Russia Should Fear, Five Russian Weapons of War NATO Should Fear, Five Chinese Weapons of War America Should Fear, Five American Weapons of War China Should Fear, Five Japanese Weapons of War China Should Fear, Five Best Weapons […]
Vietnam continues to mull the timing of its international lawsuit against China in order to maximize the suit’s impact on Vietnam’s territorial protection, spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Hai Binh at a press briefing on Thursday. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered relevant agencies to prepare documents for legal proceedings against China this […]
Chinese authorities have arrested six Vietnamese fishermen, officials say, in a move that could increase tensions in the South China Sea. Vietnam said the men were detained in disputed waters where the two countries have been confronting each other over a Chinese oil rig. China says the fishermen were in Chinese waters off Hainan island. […]
“Some of the South China Sea’s most productive oil and gas deposits are off the coast of the states Sabah and Sarawak on Malaysia’s side of Borneo,” reported the Wall Street Journal.An international energy consortium recently announced the discovery of natural-gas off Malaysia’s coast. China issued no public objections regarding the announcement. China has also […]
VietNamNet Bridge – At several international seminars recently, some senior officials, generals, diplomats and scholars of China claimed that the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 is positioned within the exclusive economic zone of Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago of China. However, the claim is completely groundless, as many researchers have pointed out. A Chinese vessel […]
With the United States once again preoccupied with events in the Middle East China has made another strategic adjustment to its claims in the South China Sea. It seems clear by now that Beijing has found a new way to bolster its position in what Stratfor analyst Robert D. Kaplan has dubbed Asia’s Cauldron. China’s plan: […]
China continued to maintain its illegal presence and aggression in Vietnamese waters on June 27 as more condemnation of its actions came from US and Philippine officials. The Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance Department reported that China had 110-114 ships of various kinds around oil rig Haiyang Shiyou – 981 yesterday. It had illegally placed the rig […]
MANILA – The Philippine government criticized Wednesday China’s publication of a new map that marks as its territory disputed islands in the South China Sea as well as waters right on the edge of the Philippine coast. Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose said the publication of the new map only shows China’s “unreasonably expansive claim” […]
The Spratly Islands—not so long ago known primarily as a rich fishing ground—have turned into an international flashpoint as Chinese leaders insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been, in the words of Premier Wen Jiabao, “China’s historical territory since ancient times.” Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime […]