China has been lashing out at rivals during the coronavirus pandemic, from a brutal brawl with Indian soldiers high in the Himalayas to a diplomatic war of words with Australia. Now, Japan is firmly in its sights. Just days ago Tokyo filed a formal diplomatic protest with Beijing over Chinese Coast Guard vessels violating the […]

TENSIONS are mounting after the US Navy and the Japanese military conducted bilateral exercises while sailing together in the South China Sea. The USS Gabrielle Giffords and Japan’s JS Kashim and Shimayuki met at sea on June 23 where they reportedly practiced and enhanced bilateral interoperability between the two navies. In April Gabrielle Giffords sailed […]

  MANILA, Philippines – Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said China’s reported plan to establish an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, violates the rules-based order, and that Beijing should desist from it. “It is my fervent hope that China would not proceed with this planned action […]

A Chinese think tank has accused the United States of sending military aircraft to conduct surveillance missions over waters nearTaiwan on Thursday.According to the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), which operates out of Peking University’s Institute of Ocean Research, three US warplanes flew over the Bashi Channel andSouth China Sea “On the […]

MANILA, Philippines—China’s plan to establish an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the disputed South China Sea could lead to mishaps and miscalculations at sea and in the air, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Thursday (June 25). “It is my fervent hope that China would not proceed with this planned action for the continued […]

JAKARTA: Amid recent activities in the South China Sea, the Indonesian government has reiterated its position on the rule of international law through diplomatic notes addressed to the United Nations, while declining China’s offer to hold bilateral talks on overlapping claims. In a diplomatic note dated May 26, Indonesia reiterated that it is not a […]

London (CNN Business)Global trade is facing another coronavirus crisis just as economies begin to reopen: 200,000 seafarers stranded for months by port closures and the collapse in long-haul aviation could refuse to keep working. Many seafarers extended their contracts by several months to keep supplies of food, fuel and medicine flowing around the world during […]

MANILA, Philippines – Despite earlier asserting he wanted the military deal scrapped, President Rodrigo Duterte decided to suspend his earlier decision to terminate the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States due to rising tensions in the South China Sea during the pandemic. According to Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr, who along with […]

According to the state-owned Global Times, the report by China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies details US security policy, military presence and deployment. It warns of a pending Cold War-esque conflict between China and the US. The Global Times report US warships have repeatedly trespassed into Chinese territorial waters around the Xisha and […]

  The U.S. Navy is preparing for expansive two-carrier attacks in the Pacific by connecting the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Groups for combined operations near the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. The exercise, which is, of course, not planning any attacks or specific war moves, is intended to ensure […]