Sea jab clouds China visit

New Delhi, Aug. 6: Two statements by junior foreign minister V.K. Singh last week backing Manila over Beijing in a major maritime dispute are threatening to cloud a visit by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, adding to a series of spats already pockmarking India’s relationship with its largest neighbour. India has repeatedly advocated diplomacy and […]

China arming for long war in South China Sea with more aircraft carriers, J-15 fighters

BEIJING: China, which is developing two more aircraft carriers, is building up a naval-aviation division to safeguard the country’s maritime interests amid escalating tensions over the disputed South China Sea. China commissioned its first aircraft carrier Liaoning in September 2012 and launched a specially designed J-15 fighter jets to operate from its deck. Although it’s […]

China launches website on South China Sea issue

The launch ceremony for thesouthchinasea.org is held in Beijing, on July 18, 2016. [Photo: haiwainet.cn] A website called “thesouthchinasea.org” was recently launched in Beijing. The launch was timely coming shortly after the ruling on the “arbitration” initiated by the former government of the Philippines. The online portal aims to support China’s stance on South China […]

Six Little Words That Keep the South China Sea Hanging in the Balance

Over the decades, China scholars in the United States, Taiwan and China itself have spilled rivers of ink parsing official and unofficial statements from the three countries to assess the direction of cross-Strait relations. Year after year, they compare and contrast every utterance and every article to discern nuance, shaded meanings, perceptible shifts in position, […]

This is what the next flash point in the South China Sea looks like

Perhaps the most significant portion of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s July 12 500-page unanimous ruling on the South China Sea is the decision on Mischief Reef. According to the ruling, the reef and everything on it legally belongs to the Philippines. This is in spite of China’s reclamation of approximately 5,580,000 square meters of […]

How hackers used this Trojan malware to spy on a territorial dispute

Hackers have used targeted malware to steal data from some of the governments and private sector organisations involved in the dispute over territory and sovereignty in the South China Sea. Cybersecurity company F-Secure Labs uncovered the malware, dubbed NanHaiShu by researchers, which it said targeted the Philippines Department of Justice, a major international law firm […]