The Battle of the Paracel Islands was a military engagement between the naval forces of China and South Vietnam in the Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974. The battle was an attempt by the South Vietnamese navy to expel the… Read More ›
Paracel Islands
China supports two-state solution to settle the Palestinian issue
Standing next to the visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing, Xi Jinping states clearly that China supports the two-state solution which is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. It is the loudest rebuttal to certain… Read More ›
China to send nuclear-armed submarines into Pacific amid tensions with US
The Chinese military is poised to send submarines armed with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s existing deterrent force that it has been left with no… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, March 7, 2016
China’s political Two Sessions just finished. It is good to see concern for responsibility, enforcement, growth, and grace within China’s governance. Clean air was on the agenda. 300,000 soldiers have been cut from active duty, mostly non-infantry. The military did… Read More ›
The U.S. just sent a carrier strike group to confront China in the South China Sea
The U.S. Navy has dispatched a small armada to the South China Sea. The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters in recent days, according to military officials. The carrier strike… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, February 29, 2016
A Chinese official, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), has become the first to recognize Taiwan’s Constitution. He says that the president elect, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), should “abide by it”. Tsai has promised to declassify documents about the 228… Read More ›
Why the bear is back in Vietnam – Russia assisting Vietnam in South China Sea dispute
Russia-Vietnam ties that seemed to be cooling after the end of the Cold War are warming up all over again. More than 20 years after Moscow abandoned its largest foreign base, Russian military aircraft are once again welcome visitors at… Read More ›
US to deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Australia to send message to China
The United States announced that it will deploy nuclear-capable strategic bombers in Australia as China becomes increasingly concerned about US interference at what China claims is its borders. The United States will station B-1 strategic bombers in Australia, US Assistant… Read More ›
China uses fishermen to attack Vietnamese fishing boats in South China Sea
According to the Tuoi Tre News article on August 21 titled “Vietnam denounces inhuman actions against fishermen,” on that day Vietnam denounced the incident of attacking Vietnamese fishermen who were fishing at their traditional fishing ground. A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry… Read More ›
Chinese media says “Vietnam doomed to lose”
The following is translated from Chinese media: Due to instability in the Middle East, China has determined to extract the oil and gas in the disputed waters in the South China Sea. China has the equipment and technology to do… Read More ›
Could this map of China start a war?
Chinese authorities unveiled this week a new map showing the totality of Beijing’s territorial claims. It supplants an earlier map, which had a cutaway box displaying China’s declared claims over the South China Sea. Now, Chinese citizens can “fully, directly… Read More ›
The Cham: Vietnam’s descendants of ancient rulers of South China Sea
In Vietnam, roughly 160,000 members of the Cham ethnic minority, whose forebears dominated the South China Sea for more than a millennium, are quietly watching on the sidelines of the escalating conflict in the waters they may have a historical… Read More ›
Top China diplomat to visit Vietnam in possible thaw over oil rig
China’s top diplomat will visit Vietnam on Wednesday in a sign the two countries want to ease tensions over China’s deployment of an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea, but experts said there were many obstacles to healing… Read More ›
Vietnam says China moving oil rig, but sending in warships
Vietnam said on Wednesday a Chinese oil rig at the centre of an increasingly bitter territorial dispute appeared to be on the move again, as China denied Vietnamese accusations that it had sent warships to the scene. The rig’s deployment… Read More ›
China takes dispute with Vietnam to UN
China took its dispute with Vietnam over its deployment of an oil rig in contested waters to the United Nations on Monday, accusing Hanoi of infringing on its sovereignty and illegally disrupting a Chinese company’s drilling operation. China’s deputy ambassador… Read More ›
Vietnam boat sinks after collision with Chinese vessel in South China Sea
A Vietnamese boat has sunk after it collided with a Chinese vessel near a controversial oil rig in the South China Sea, amid tensions between the two nations. Both countries are blaming the other for the incident. Vietnam‘s coast guard… Read More ›
Indonesia joins push against China; beefs up air force in South China Sea
Indonesia is beefing up its air presence along the South China Sea, a military officer has announced. According to IHS Jane’s, Lieutenant Colonel Andri Gandy, the commander of Ranai airbase on the Riau Islands, which borders the South China Sea,… Read More ›
Chinese warships aim uncovered guns at Vietnamese ships in South China Sea
Chinese vessels guarding the oil rig illegally planted in Vietnam’s waters threatened and even attempted to ram Vietnamese vessels on Wednesday, but the Vietnamese force did not waver in the face of the attacks. The attacks by Chinese ships began… Read More ›
Large number of Chinese troops seen heading for China-Vietnam border
A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China–Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be… Read More ›
Philippines says China appears to be building airstrip on disputed reef
The Philippines accused China on Wednesday of reclaiming land on a reef in disputed islands in the South China Sea, apparently to build an airstrip, only a day after Washington described Beijing’s actions in the region as “provocative”. If confirmed,… Read More ›
Vietnam mobs set fire to foreign factories in anti-China protest
Thousands of Vietnamese set fire to factories and rampaged in industrial zones in the south of the country after protests against Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, officials said on Wednesday. The… Read More ›
China apprehending boats weekly in disputed South China Sea
Chinese patrols enforcing disputed new fishing rules in the South China Sea are apprehending foreign boats on a weekly basis, Communist Party officials said on Thursday. In comments that provide the first window on how China is enforcing new rules… Read More ›
China’s stealth wars of acquisition
In the way China made land grabs across the Himalayas in the 1950s by launching furtive encroachments, it is now waging stealth wars – without firing a single shot – to change the status quo in the South and East… Read More ›
China consolidates sea claims as Asian diplomacy struggles
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 ›
China arranges tourist visits to disputed Paracel Islands to force sovereignity claim
Sending fishing boats to disputed sea areas has now been a common strategy adopted by countries in claiming sovereignty over disputed islands in South and East China Seas. Now, according to the following Reuters report, China begins to adopt a… Read More ›
Vietnam accuses China of firing on fishing boat
Vietnam has accused a Chinese vessel of firing on a Vietnamese fishing boat in the disputed South China Sea and setting its cabin alight, exposing tensions in the region over rival claims to the gas-rich waters. The government described the… Read More ›
China drives out Vietnam fishing vessels from South China sea
Chinese maritime surveillance vessels, which were aggressively patrolling the disputed waters in the South China Sea, drove out two Vietnam-registered fishing ships on March 13. The Vietnamese vessels were spotted this morning in the South China Sea near the Xisha… Read More ›
Beijing reveals the secret locations of China’s armies
Since 1949, the People’s Republic of China has made a big secret about their PLA military units. Now the Chinese leadership reveals exact details – in the middle of the escalating island dispute with Japan. Neither the state security nor the… Read More ›
New official China map includes contested islands
China has published a new official map that includes islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) as part of sovereign Chinese territory, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency. China’s National Administration of Surveying, Mapping… Read More ›
China speeds up construction of Sansha City on island claimed by Philippines
Chinese authorities are speeding up construction work in Sansha, a newly formed city located on a disputed island in the West Philippine Sea. A report posted on China‘s government web portal Sunday said authorities mapped out plans for four infrastructure… Read More ›
The South China Sea’s gathering storm
All of East Asia is waiting to see how the U.S. will respond to China’s aggression. Since World War II, despite the costly flare-ups in Korea and Vietnam, the United States has proved to be the essential guarantor of stability… Read More ›
China’s politics and oil needs lead to risk of conflict in South China Sea
In asserting its claims to the tiny islands, rocks and reefs in the South China Sea, China points to records of its ancient mariners. Today, those waters are far more important to China than in the age of the sail…. Read More ›
China’s newest city: Sansha to build 83 low-rent apartments
Authorities in Sansha City, which was established last week on Yongxing Island in China‘s southernmost province of Hainan, have decided to build 83 low-rent apartments for its residents, the People’s Daily reported on July 30, 2012. The island is currently… Read More ›
China: Sansha capital Yongxing Island under strict military control
Hong Kong Ming Pao’s reporter has recently been on Yongxing Island and found that the island is under strict military control due to the rising tensions in the South China Sea. The reporter says the scenery on the island is… Read More ›
Large military hospital built for South China Sea actions
A large military hospital, newly built on Hainan Island, indicates that China’s hard-line attitude in the South China Sea is not merely bluffing. Hong Kong’s Ming Pao says that the Chinese military’s PLA Daily quoted Major General Li Shuzhang, President… Read More ›
Large Chinese fishing fleet sets out for Nansha disputed territory
According to various Chinese media including Xinhua, yesterday morning a fleet of 30 fishing boats held a setting sail ceremony at Sanya, Hainan Province. Among them was a 3,000-ton master ship and 29 fishing boats with tonnage of more than… Read More ›
China, Vietnam: Hardened lines in the South China Sea
Tit-for-tat moves by China and Vietnam represent the latest indication that tensions could break into conflict over contested and potentially resource rich maritime areas in the South China Sea. Hanoi’s National Assembly late last month overwhelmingly passed a law that… Read More ›
Vietnam says China offshore oil auction ‘illegal’
Vietnam has denounced China‘s opening of offshore oil blocks to foreign companies in contested areas of the South China Sea as “illegal”, as territorial tensions grow between the communist neighbours. On Saturday, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced… Read More ›
No end of South China Sea troubles for China
Soon after both the Philippines and China withdrew their boats from the disputed Scarborough Shoal and its surrounding sea area on the excuse of poor weather, Philippine president Benigno Aquino III said on June 20 he would send ships back… Read More ›
China declares Vietnam’s claim over islands “illegal and invalid”
China said it summoned Vietnam‘s ambassador Thursday and strongly protested a law adopted by the Vietnamese parliament that places the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands under Hanoi‘s sovereignty. China and Vietnam, as well as other neighbouring nations, are locked in… Read More ›
