The US and its allies continue to implement a dangerous strategy to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific. These days, it’s all but too easy to get distracted by the stories the mainstream media overhypes on a regular basis and overlook some of those more pressing stories which fall beneath the radar. When […]

China’s militarisation of the South China Sea will be a key topic at next week’s AUSMIN summit, but the government is declining to say whether Australia will play a greater role in asserting freedom of navigation through the disputed waterways. Defence Minister Marise Payne offered a spirited defence of Australia’s role in ensuring free movement […]

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is expecting China to be fair on the South China Sea row as he expressed optimism that Filipinos would eventually view Beijing as a “good neighbor.” Duterte, who has been accused of not doing enough to assert the country’s maritime claims, said the Philippines and China have agreed to […]

The U.S. should respond more vigorously to Beijing’s violations of international law. Two years after an international tribunal rejected expansive Chinese claims to the South China Sea, Beijing is consolidating control over the area and its resources. While the U.S. defends the right to freedom of navigation, it has failed to support the rights of […]

Despite the bogey of war that President Duterte has raised every time China’s transgressions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) is brought up, up to 8 out of 10 Filipinos still believe the government should enforce the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague that favored the country’s claims over disputed […]

THE Yellows’ old reliable, the Social Weather Stations, is at it again, disseminating falsehoods disguised as public opinion, undertaking propaganda through its interview questions themselves. Its recent poll on our territorial dispute with China was widely reported by media, with the TV network GMA-7’s article on it headlined: “81 percent reject govt’s ‘do nothing’ policy […]

Many local and international observers have denounced Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s conduct towards China as “appeasement” after he took the view there was nothing the Philippines could do to stop China’s militarisation in the South China Sea. Duterte’s defeatist attitude, allegedly the trade-off of comprehensive engagement with China, is being put to a critical test […]

One embraces China investments with open arms, the other shows more caution. One sees US President Donald Trump as a ‘friend,’ the other calls him an ‘international bully.’ GAME-CHANGERS. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad are game-changers in the Southeast Asian region. Duterte photo from Malacañang, Mahathir photo from Agence France-Presse […]

Top critics say Filipino leader is a ‘willing victim’ of China on anniversary of Hague-based tribunal ruling that nullified China’s vast claims in the South China Sea Activists hold placards during a protest in front of the Chinese Consular Office in Manila on June 11, 2018. The Philippines on June 11 demanded that China stop […]

MANILA, Philippines — As the Philippines commemorated the second anniversary of its arbitral victory against China Thursday, Malacañang vowed to continue asserting the country’s claims in the West Philippine (South China) Sea and dared critics to challenge its handling of the dispute before the court. China claims about 90 percent of the resource-rich South China […]