At this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, China sent a lower-ranking delegation than in years past. Previously, China’s representative was a deputy chief from Joint Staff; this year Beijing sent a lieutenant general. India did not attend. US Defense Secretary… Read More ›
The cycle of history is becoming more of a cyclone. Not much changed at this year’s G20: Posturing, “sovereignty” subjectively defined to excuse nearly everything and everyone’s self, money used as the looming threat to scare each other into cooperation…. Read More ›
North Korea launched a missile that travelled 1/10 the distance it needs to. Pyongyang considered it a “success”. China has come to a consensus about it’s activity in the South China Sea. The consensus did not include all ASEAN nations…. Read More ›
The following is based on a translation of a report on a Chinese news site: Chinese news site mil.news.sina.com.cn reports that the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) navy has been making great efforts to obtain access to ports abroad so that… Read More ›
Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister said the country must defend encroachment of its sovereignty in a veiled swipe at China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, as tensions flared ahead of a regional meeting that Beijing will attend. Without directly… Read More ›
With Australia firmly in the geopolitical mix, no one is publicly talking about China and containment, but all strategies are going in that direction. A recent cover of India Today magazine has Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed up as Superman,… Read More ›
China didn’t make any friends this week. Beijing spies on every street corner with a service literally named “Skynet”. The Pentagon wants a strong Taiwan. The US Navy plans to challenge China’s man-made military airport-seaport islands. Most people don’t know… Read More ›
The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said. China’s construction program… Read More ›
It all happened in a week. Man-made land isn’t sovereign land says UN. 12 nautical miles is “sovereign”. US Navy to park inside 12 miles of China’s man-made islets in the making; a volatile military standoff is inevitable. A US… Read More ›
The U.S. military is considering using aircraft and Navy ships to directly contest Chinese territorial claims to a chain of rapidly expanding artificial islands, U.S. officials said, in a move that would raise the stakes in a regional showdown over… Read More ›
Southeast Asia’s major economies drew more foreign direct investment combined than China for the second straight year in 2014, as growth in their giant neighbour cooled. But by country, inflows into the region were uneven, swayed by political change and… Read More ›
Satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea, a leading defence publication said. The construction has… Read More ›
It is no secret that the South China Sea is an area of conflict and controversy, but understanding the interests and role of the United States in that region is not intuitive. The situation centers on competing territorial claims by… Read More ›
It’s no secret that China’s rise as an economic power has been miraculous. Over the past few decades, hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, BMWs have replaced many bicycles on the streets of Beijing, and China’s… Read More ›
While China and ASEAN decided at a conference of economic and trade ministers on August 26 to conduct discussions on upgrading China-ASEAN free trade area, Reuters gave a report on the same day about the fear that China’s rise has… Read More ›
There was an article on development of the weapons industry in Southeast Asia, ascribing it to the fear of China’s rise among countries there. However, we can blame China for the rising military budgets and purchases of weapon there, but… Read More ›
A favourite export from China to its neighbours these days are high-speed rail lines designed to make trade routes in the vast stretches of Asia more accessible and fortify Chinese dreams of turning its southern reaches into the capital of… Read More ›
On July 18, shortly after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed over eastern Ukraine, extinguishing 298 lives, China’s Xinhua state news agency cautioned against making snap judgments. The U.S. and other Western nations had begun to finger pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine… Read More ›
The Philippines is pushing for a meeting among four Southeast Asian nations with conflicting claims to waters in the South China Sea so that they can hammer out a common stand in dealings with China, Manila‘s foreign minister said on… Read More ›
China, involved in a growing dispute with its neighbours over the energy-rich South China Sea, wants to promote peaceful development of the oceans, Premier Li Keqiang said, warning conflicts in the past had only brought “disaster for humanity”. China claims… Read More ›
The China–Vietnam confrontation in the South China Sea continues to roil Asia. Gun battles have yet to erupt in the disputed Paracel Island maritime zone where, in early May, China deployed a very large oil exploration and drilling ship. In… Read More ›
The following is a translation from Chinese media: China believes that it’s reclamation of land on Johnson South Reef can monitor and control three countries – Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. China also believes that the construction of an artificial island… Read More ›
Indonesia and Philippines have rejected historical records, and accepted UNCLOS (1982) as the current prevailing law to settle maritime boundaries in the South China Sea. This should be a precedent to other claimant nations in the territorial disputes. The recent… Read More ›
The No. 9 Design & Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation recently displayed on its official website its proposed design of an artificial island to be built on a reef in the South China Sea. It aims at providing… Read More ›
The following is a repost of an article that appeared in China Daily Mail on March 1, 2014: The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia’s Borneo island state of… Read More ›
Six U.S. senators urged their colleagues on Friday to support legislation reaffirming U.S. support for freedom of navigation, saying they consider China’s recent actions in the South China Sea troubling. China this week accused Vietnam of intentionally colliding with its… Read More ›
Tensions between grieving Chinese families in Beijing and Malaysian Airlines staff boiled over this week when airline staff were held inside a hotel for 10 hours by angry family members and a security officer was allegedly assaulted. Malaysian Airlines released… Read More ›
Japanese companies‘ investments in Southeast Asia surged last year to almost three times the amount invested in China, after relations between Beijing and Tokyo soured in 2012 and Chinese labor costs rose, a government agency of Japan said on Friday…. Read More ›
When a Chinese government vessel took the world by surprise this month with its announcement that it had detected underwater signals that might have come from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, China suddenly looked like the hero of the multinational… Read More ›
After spending weeks combing through official reports, attending press conferences and interviewing aviation insiders, China’s official news agency Xinhua has officially called off the search for a Japanese link to the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. On Friday morning,… Read More ›
As the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 enters its second month, an all-too-rare glimmer of good news has been found: On Sunday, an Australian navy vessel reported signals “consistent” with those emitted by an airplane’s black box in the… Read More ›
The following are the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of China Daily Mail: I refer to “MH370: ‘Under siege’ Malaysians hit back at China,” Free Malaysia Today, March 28 with regard to China’s stinging and strident criticism… Read More ›
The following is speculation on the part of a Chinese netizen, and reflects the growing concern about this issue by Chinese Internet users. The post was made on March 15 2014. The opinions expressed do not reflect those of China… Read More ›
India has declined China’s proposal to allow four of its warships to join the hunt for the MH370 jetliner near the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, even as it is now dispatching two aircraft to Malaysia to join the international search… Read More ›
The search for a missing jetliner with Chinese travellers aboard has revealed the limits of Beijing’s influence in its own backyard and left communist leaders facing outrage from their public. Beijing has demanded Malaysia do more to find the missing… Read More ›
In the aftermath of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people on board, 153 of them Chinese nationals, Beijing is flexing its muscles. The Chinese government has dispatched two warships, 10 satellites, over 50 marines to the… Read More ›
The opinions expressed in this article are those of “The Star Online” (published by Malaysian Chinese Association), and not necessarily those of China Daily Mail. There is speculation that militants from China’s Uighur Muslim minority could be involved in the… Read More ›
EDITORIAL—China and the West want China and the West to know that they are in a prelude to war. Here are a few reasons why from recently… Philippines protests over South China Sea water cannon attack Another indication of Chinese aggression… Read More ›
The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia’s Borneo island state of Sarawak. But two Chinese naval exercises in less than a year around the James Shoal have shocked Malaysia… Read More ›
China will lead an expedition into the South China Sea, 80 kilometres off the coast of Malaysia and 1,800 kilometres from the Chinese mainland – territory China claims as it’s own. The first scientific ocean drilling expedition led and sponsored… Read More ›
The Philippines expects an early ruling from the United Nations’ tribunal on its arbitration case questioning China’s claim on the South China Sea, Manila‘s foreign minister said on Thursday, in the first public announcement of hopes for a swift outcome…. Read More ›
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that China had probably taken advantage of his absence from a summit in Asia this week and he warned that the government shutdown and fiscal debate were hurting U.S. credibility abroad. Obama last week… Read More ›
China has demanded the Philippines drop its arbitration case with the United Nations on territorial disputes as a condition for allowing President Benigno Aquino to visit a Chinese trade fair, diplomatic sources say. The demand prompted Aquino to cancel the… Read More ›
For decades, fishermen along the northwestern Philippine coast treated the teeming fishing grounds of the Scarborough Shoal as their backyard, less than a day’s boat ride away. Now, they see it as a foreign country. “I lost my livelihood when… Read More ›
When I read ‘Sabah Incursion: Hang the Traitors’ by A Kadir Jasin, a pro-UMNO blogger (a former group editor-in-chief of New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd and at times also a Berita Harian columnist), I was disappointed by his tone… Read More ›
A Chinese amphibious task force sparked jitters around the region by reaching the southernmost waters of its claimed domain A fully equipped PLA amphibious task force has reached China’s southernmost claimed possession in the South China Sea in an unprecedented… Read More ›
Chinese and Malaysian companies agreed to invest 10.5 billion Ringgit ($3.4 billion) on an industrial park in the Southeast Asian nation, which will include steel and aluminum plants as well as a palm oil refinery. This comes just a few… Read More ›
Xiamen University in Fujian Province announced that it would open its first overseas campus in the Malaysian state of Selangor in September 2015. It will become the first Chinese university to open an overseas branch. The final agreement for the Xiamen… Read More ›
The Taiwanese government plans to expand its wharf at Taiping Island in the South China Sea to accommodate larger vessels as part of its ongoing military enhancement project in the disputed region. The Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA), which is… Read More ›
The assumption that Mandarin will grow with China’s economic rise may be flawed. Consider Japan which, after spectacular post-war economic growth, became the world’s second-biggest economy. The Japanese language saw no comparable rise in power and prestige. The same may… Read More ›
