The total area of China’s claims on other countries exceeds the size of modern China itself, but Beijing refuses to budge on its claims. Many are based on unsubstantiated (outside China) and unprecedented “historical precedents” dating back centuries. And while… Read More ›
Attention shifted away from the South China Sea (SCS) in 2022 as the world confronted the Ukraine war and the Taiwan Strait crisis in February and August. Fears that a Ukraine-inspired conflict would erupt in the Taiwan Strait have not… Read More ›
Chinese warplanes are targeting US allies in a high-stakes “game of chicken” over the Asia-Pacific that risks spiraling out of control — raising the risk of an incident that could spark war. That is the view of analysts who warn… Read More ›
If we thought 2019 and 2020 presented uncertainties then 2022 is here to surprise all of us. It could be remembered as one of the most complex, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous years in the recent past. COVID-19, oil crossing $100/barrel,… Read More ›
As China-US tensions ratchet up, the unthinkable – a military clash – becomes ever more likely. While neither likely wants a military confrontation, a perfect storm of circumstances could turn a relatively minor incident into a wider clash. While China’s… Read More ›
Hundreds of Chinese maritime militia vessels are operating in contested areas of the South China Sea on a consistent basis, according to a new U.S. think tank report that says this poses a significant challenge to “maritime order rooted in… Read More ›
The easiest solution to China’s escalating situation in the South Sea is to enforce China’s own formal statements at face value. China says they respect other countries and do not want to militarize the South Sea. Leave it at that…. Read More ›
China has stepped up its domination strategy for the South China Sea via a new maritime law that deliberately restricts freedom of navigation for various types of foreign-flagged vessels that enter Beijing-claimed waters. The law, which was passed in April… Read More ›
India has an aircraft carrier. It just finished its maiden voyage in China’s backyard. Those shipping lanes—one third of ocean-faring trade traffic—which China wants to claim by planting islands next to—most of them pass India. If any of them have… Read More ›
Japan is planning to deploy missile units on an island 300 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan to counter China’s growing naval presence in the area and defend against a potential Chinese attack. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a… Read More ›
China has branded the United States an “out-and-out security risk creator” in the South China Sea, after a US warship sailed through waters near disputed Islands. In a statement, the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said the USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided-missile destroyer, entered… Read More ›
Major powers are wading deeper into the South China Sea in a series of moves that promise to rile China while answering US calls for like-minded nations to counter jointly Beijing’s rising assertiveness in the crucial and contested maritime area…. Read More ›
It’s war. But not as we know it. Decades of writings by China’s top tacticians reveal this to be so. “National security leaders should look closely at what Chinese officials’ words and China’s military actions say about how the People’s… Read More ›
I wholly concur with the penetrating analysis and categorical contention of retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio that the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international treaty adopted in 1982, will collapse if China succeeds in… Read More ›
China has drilled deep in the South China Sea to retrieve sediment core from the seabed, state media reported on Thursday, amid tensions over disputed waters with rival claimants Taiwan and the Philippines, as well as with the United States…. Read More ›
The Philippines urged China on Sunday to recall more than 200 Chinese boats it said had been spotted at a reef in the South China Sea, saying the presence of the vessels violated its maritime rights as it claims ownership… Read More ›
A Chinese government scientific research ship has completed an expedition in waters disputed by Vietnam and China in the South China Sea, according to Chinese state media and data from a ship-tracking platform The Tan Suo 2 left the Chinese… Read More ›
China is mixing its civilian population with military front lines. This new Sansha “City” probably should be called a province and not a “city”. Leave it to the Chinese and Taiwanese governments to garble province-level translation. It’s not anything the… Read More ›
China and the South China Sea will be in sharp focus when the US military reviews its missions around the world, according to the Pentagon.US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin announced earlier this month that US President Joe Biden had… Read More ›
China is set to construct new housing to accommodate nearly 400 people on Woody Island, a sign of its effort to support a growing population on this key outpost in the disputed South China Sea, Chinese government documents and satellite… Read More ›
The United States has pledged to support its allies involved in maritime disputes over both the South and East China seas – where China is locking horns with its neighbours – as the newly installed US administration is renewing alliances… Read More ›
The Philippines has protested a new Chinese law that authorizes its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels and destroy other countries’ structures on islands it claims, Manila’s top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a… Read More ›
China’s first domestically-built, semi-submersible deep-water oil production unit has been completed after 21 months of construction. The platform is now ready to set off to the country’s first deep-water gas field in the South China Sea. The gas field, called… Read More ›
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 ›
The United States on Thursday blacklisted Chinese oil giant CNOOC and slapped visa restrictions on officials of the Chinese navy, ruling party and state-owned enterprises over land reclamation and “coercion” of Southeast Asian claimants in the disputed South China Sea…. Read More ›
Fresh off a hard-fought Brexit deal with Brussels, the United Kingdom has immediately plunged itself into the center of Asian geopolitics and on a maritime collision course with China. Touting itself as “a global power with truly global interest”, the… Read More ›
According to Asia Times Financial’s report “China to start big oil and gas project in South China Sea” based on local news website Netease’s report, China has recently finished construction of the world’s largest oil and gas storage platform. It… Read More ›
There was always a stark difference between America’s southern wall and the Berlin Wall. America’s wall was built to keep people out—whether they were desperate to come in or hungry to invade. The Berlin Wall was meant to keep people… Read More ›
China’s expansionist drive, from the East and South China seas to the Himalayas and the southern Pacific, is making the Indo-Pacific region more volatile and unstable. Along with the spread of the Wuhan-originating coronavirus, this has also given rise to… Read More ›
China has been building a series of surveillance platforms spanning parts of the South China Sea (SCS). Many of these are in Chinese waters, but several are floating in international waters. This is controversial, not least the dual-use military context… Read More ›
In a clear and well-orchestrated escalation, the US State Department has effectively rejected nearly all of China’s claims and activities in the South China Sea, a law-based provocation that threatens to spike tensions in the already hotly contested maritime area…. Read More ›
The Trump administration escalated its actions against China on Monday by stepping squarely into one of the most sensitive regional issues dividing them and rejecting outright nearly all of Beijing’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea. The administration… Read More ›
The Philippines will adhere without compromise to a 2016 court victory that nullified China’s claims in most of the South China Sea, its top diplomat said. “The award is non-negotiable,” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in a statement… Read More ›
The U.S. Navy exercise in the disputed South China Sea over the weekend was about “showing the flag” and sending a message to the region, an expert told CNBC this week. Two U.S. aircraft carriers conducted operations and exercises in… Read More ›
“Hide your strength and bide your time.” China in 2008 “No force can shake the status of our great motherland, No force can stop the advance of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.” China in 2019 The above statements… Read More ›
If Hanoi files an official complaint in its South China Sea dispute with Beijing, it could lose more than it win. Pundits are predicting that Vietnam will soon file a complaint under the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea… Read More ›
Continue Reading From Part 1: This is a regular working day in New York City, U.S.A. The lines outside the ATMs and Bank tellers are getting serpentine, and people are losing their patience, the banking servers have crashed. In a… Read More ›
China’s military said it “expelled” a U.S. navy vessel from the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea this week. It said the “USS Barry” had illegally entered China’s Xisha territorial waters on Tuesday. U.S. officials disputed the account…. Read More ›
China’s first domestically-built aircraft carrier is on its way to the South China Sea for tests and to take part in exercises, the Chinese navy said on Monday, after sailing through the Taiwan Strait in a mission denounced by Taipei… Read More ›
China’s defence minister said on Monday that resolving the “Taiwan question” was China’s greatest national interest, and that no force could prevent the country’s “reunification”. Separatist activities were doomed to failure, Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said at the opening in… Read More ›
China is fielding a far-reaching reconnaissance system reliant on drones to strengthen its ability to conduct surveillance operations in hard-to-reach areas of the South China Sea, the Ministry of Natural Resources said in a report Tuesday. The system, which relies… Read More ›
China condemned a US naval patrol near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and called on Washington to stop infringing upon its sovereignty. On Wednesday, the guided missile destroyer USS Wayne E Meyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of… Read More ›
The United States has accused China of preventing Southeast Asian countries from accessing trillions of dollars worth of untapped oil and gas reserves in the South China Sea as the Pentagon planned to hold its first exercise with regional powers… Read More ›
Chinese incursions into Vietnam’s EEZ are by no means a new phenomenon. The most serious recent incident occurred in 2014, when China deployed an oil rig into Vietnam’s EEZ, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbors. The current situation… Read More ›
A new study by a think tank warns the U.S. has lost its military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific region, with China being able to launch and win a military conflict even before American forces are able to respond. The University of… Read More ›
‘US unable to defend against Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons, report warns’ — Fox News, by quoting an official Dec 2018 report submitted to the Congress, picked the threat of hypersonic weapons among various items as the headline of its… Read More ›
By summoning the 1943 concept ‘Lippmann Gap’, which was used by Samuel Huntington in 1988 to assess the post-WWII American foreign policy. Lindsey Ford, a former senior advisor on Asia-Pacific affairs in the Department of Defense 2009-15, argues that this… Read More ›
The Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia reported this on June 11: “When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hitched a ride on an Air China plane to his summit with Donald Trump in Singapore, the signal was clear: Beijing remains Pyongyang’s diplomatic… Read More ›
Control over the sea waters relies heavily on relative technological superiority because, unlike the control over a piece of land, you cannot simply station a large quantity of soldiers on the water surface permanently, nor settling civilians on it. Therefore,… Read More ›
Conveniently, Axios breaks a story from Trump’s November visit to China. There was a scuffle and a tackle over the “nuclear football”—AKA the nuke code bag. At first, it seems like relations are breaking down between the US and China…. Read More ›
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