On January 20, Donald Trump will have been the president of the United States for two years. His rule has been so erratic that not only the US but the world is no longer recognisable to his country’s allies and enemies alike. In the six years Xi Jinping has been China’s leader, he, too, has […]

The Pentagon is now taking a much more assertive response to China’s military muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific region than it did just a few months back. Early in September, a Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance flight over the South China Sea was harshly warned off by Chinese radio operators stationed on a fortified islet of Mischief […]

HONG KONG, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) — The year 2018 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of strategic partnership between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) featured with political trust, mutual respect and win-win cooperation. The two sides have pledged to further develop their relations to a new high by adopting the […]

Marine economy sees 7.2% annual growth since 2012: report China’s southern marine economic zone including the South China Sea has outgrown the north and east marine economic zones in gross ocean product, reaching 3 trillion yuan ($440 billion ) in 2017, an increase of more than 80 percent since 2012, a report said. Analysts praised […]

Chinese workers are “flooding” the Philippines. That’s according to a story published recently in South China Morning Post. Worse, Duterte’s administration is losing count of how many Chinese workers are in the country legally or illegally, according to the same source. The flood of Chinese workers follows Duterte’s abandoning the Philippines close ties with the […]

It’s an uneasy time for Asian nations as the rivalry between China and the United States intensifies and uncertainty hangs on whether they can resolve their trade war beyond the 90-day truce. In this special series the South China Morning Post explores how the China-US rivalry is affecting four countries in Asia. In the final […]

China has astounded the world with the speed and scale of its creation of artificial islands and military infrastructure in the South China Sea. The first Chinese dredger initiated land reclamation in December 2013. Five years later, China has completed building its manmade islands and is now steadily ramping up its military assets in the […]

SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – The year 2018 saw China enter into a new phase in its militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea – the increased deployment of military vessels and equipment. This is according to Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Center for Strategic and International […]

Japan’s prime minister has paved a policy path that challenges China’s grab for power in the Indo-Pacific region. What happens next? If there is a single figure, who has played the greatest role in bringing about the “Indo-Pacific” age, it’s arguably Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Since his return to power in 2012, he has, […]

The way ahead is to focus on the political economy of complementaries and synergies between India and China The Modi-Xi informal Wuhan Summit of May 2018 has contributed to Sino-India relations both in discourse and practice. However, given the geo-economic depth in relationship that the people of the two countries are seeking, there’s more to […]