Vietnam finally has a new weapon against the Chinese maritime expansion after receiving its first Kilo-class submarine from Russia on the last day of 2013, according to the Washington-based Strategy Page on Feb. 20. The submarine is the first of six 2,300-tonne Kilo-class submarines to arrive in Vietnam after the country signed a US$2.1 billion […]
On the next day after President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union (SotU) 2014, which did not mention anything about the tension in East Asia, not even the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Tokyo-based The Diplomat published an article to ask whether Obama “has abandoned the Pivot to Asia”: “… he couldn’t make room for […]
MANILA – Marking the 35th anniversary of the short but bloody China-Vietnam border war, Vietnamese living in the Philippines linked arms Monday with Filipino activists in reminding Beijing to stop using force to assert its will on its neighbors in pushing its territorial claims. In a mass action outside the Chinese consulate in Makati City, […]
In early January 2014, video of a recent CCTV4 documentary “Blue Frontiers Guard” appeared online, providing a detailed history of the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) spanning from roughly 2007 up until the present. The documentary, in Chinese with English subtitles, begins with footage of an incident that occurred on June 30, 2007 between various government […]
During President Ferdinand Marcos’ State Visit to China in 1975 to establish diplomatic relations, among China’s leaders he met was First Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping. During this meeting, Marcos raised the issue of the Spratlys but Deng said that this issue should be left to future generations to discuss. China lays claim to all of the […]
On January 16, 1974, the Republic of Vietnam Navy (RVN) discovered the presence of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Crescent Group in the western Paracel Islands, which was held by South Vietnam. This was an unexpected development, because notwithstanding the reduced U.S. military assistance to Saigon after the signing of the Paris […]
BEIJING — China will base a 5,000-ton civilian patrol ship on one of the main islands it controls in the disputed South China Sea and begin regular patrols, an official newspaper said on Tuesday. The move is likely to add fuel to territorial disputes with neighbors. The China Ocean News, published by the State Oceanic Administration, […]
“They were really unprepared for that and were really embarrassed by it,” one of Vietnam’s top experts on Chinese diplomacy told me during my recent visit to Hanoi, referring to the Philippines’ bringing its case against China’s aggressive illegal actions in the West Philippine Sea to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal. This confirmed my assessment […]
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Vietnam on Friday condemned a new Chinese law that requires foreign fishermen to seek Beijing’s approval to operate in much of the South China Sea, where overlapping territorial claims have escalated tensions. China’s assertiveness in pressing its claims in the waters, which are believed to have significant seabed gas […]
MANILA – The Philippines denounced Friday a new Chinese law that Manila says compels foreign vessels to seek a permit from Chinese regional authorities for activities in large areas of the South China Sea, including portions referred to by Manila as the West Philippine Sea. “We have requested China to immediately clarify the new fisheries […]