In the South China Sea, islands able to sustain PLA military operations have been constructed from what previously had been strips of sand or small atolls while Chinese naval militias harass commercial fishing fleets. In Crimea and eastern Ukraine, soldiers lacking national attribution have assisted local forces demanding changes in political boundaries. Russian and Chinese […]
TAIPEI — A marine sanctuary proposed by the Philippine president inside a contested South China Sea shoal risks upsetting rival claimant China despite an ecological mission and a recent thaw in relations with the Asian superpower. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told local media in late November he planned to issue an executive order declaring the […]
President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented phone call with Taiwan’s newly-elected president Tsai Ing-wen has a lot to do with Washington’s often complicated military tensions with Beijing. Why? The South China Sea, a disputed swath of ocean of which China claims a majority of territory. It is true, as Trump mentioned in his tweet, that America sells […]
The Scarborough Shoal has been declared a marine sanctuary by Philippine President Duterte. Touted as a solution for territorial tensions, does the move play into Chinese interests? Ana P. Santos reports from Manila. Konflikt China Philippinen – Fischerboote nördlich von Manila (Ted Aljibe/AFP/GettyImages) At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) summit in Peru last month, Philippine […]
WASHINGTON— Before the Trump administration approves any deep-sea mining projects it must conduct an in-depth analysis of the risks to wildlife and underwater ecosystems, according to a legal settlement filed today in response to a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit. The Center sued the federal government in 2015 over its approval of exploratory permits for […]
As US President-elect Donald Trump continues to stir up a hornet’s nest in Washington and elsewhere in America, the outgoing and lame-duck presidency of Barack Obama looks spent, its foreign policy agenda at risk of reversal and dismantlement. This is a pity because Mr Obama had his heart in the right places. He tried to […]
Vietnam has respected rights of countries in the East Sea, including overflight and navigation freedom and trade without restriction, in line with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), said Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh. In his speech at a workshop hosted by the working group of alternative […]
With China’s aggressive posture in the South China Sea undermining the popular narrative of its peaceful rise, many experts correctly point to the dual tides of nationalism and militarization as drivers of hostile behavior. But leaning too heavily on these explanations conceals a third factor behind Beijing’s maritime claims: a burgeoning demand for energy. http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/20573/energy-demands-increasingly-shape-china-s-behavior-in-the-south-china-sea
The head of the U.S. Coast Guard wants to send ships to the South China Sea, a heavily contested region where China is taking a hard-line stance. “When you look at the East and South China seas, look at China’s Coast Guard, it is really the first face of China,” Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul […]
Where the incoming administration chooses to stage the next FONOP will say a lot about tactical choices. Over at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Bonnie Glaser, Zack Cooper, and Peter Dutton outline a strong case for the next U.S. administration to stage its first freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea near […]