The move of the US Navy to sail near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands shows Washington’s support for the Philippines‘ claims over the South China Sea. US officials earlier confirmed that guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey sailed within six nautical… Read More ›
War with the US under Donald Trump is “not just a slogan” and becoming a “practical reality”, a senior Chinese military official has said. The remarks were published on the People’s Liberation Army website, apparently in response to the aggressive… Read More ›
All eyes went to Taiwan this week. The Taipei Times shows an uptick in article views. China held no less than three military activities that made headlines in Taiwan’s backyard, and is reported to have broken its promise not to… Read More ›
China flew a long-range nuclear-capable bomber outside China for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan, two US officials told Fox News. The dramatic show of force was meant to send a message to… Read More ›
Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Friday that he told the U.S. military that plans for joint patrols and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea have been put on hold, the first concrete break in defence cooperation after… Read More ›
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticised the United States, Japan and Australia for a joint statement on the South China Sea that he said was only “fanning the flames” of regional tensions just as countries have agreed to cool them… Read More ›
This week we see a new classroom game called “China Says”. China wants everyone to say that the South Sea is theirs. Manila wants Japan to say that Pacific nations should say otherwise. China says that no one else should… Read More ›
China has reportedly announced that it has been outdone by US technology. This implication came from the statement that it can only respond to the US “freedom of navigation” exercises by sending nuclear subs to the South China Sea. While… 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 ›
As the two possible ‘Joint Development Areas’ — “off Triton Island in the Paracels” and “Reed Bank off Philippine Palawan” [Note 1] — have almost been out of the minds of both the analysts and general public of the Philippines,… Read More ›
The US said Thursday it has launched joint South China Sea naval patrols with the Philippines, escalating its presence as it accused Beijing of “militarising” a region which is locked in territorial disputes. In a show of strength, US defence… Read More ›
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 ›
A senior U.S. official says that an upcoming ruling on a case brought by the Philippines to arbitrate territorial claims in the South China Sea will also be binding on China despite its boycott of the proceedings. China contends it… Read More ›
China is deploying weapons. The US is responding with pressure—mostly economic, some political, always involving alliances. Money and trade are atop the list. China’s unusual manipulation of its money is documented and under more scrutiny than ever. According to Chinese… Read More ›
The United States is open to the possibility of joint naval patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a U.S. diplomat said Wednesday, stressing it would continue to exercise “freedom of navigation” in the disputed waters. China claims… Read More ›
It was 1829 and a young nation seeking to protect key sea lanes dispatched a commodore to remote islets and reefs, “over which the sea broke.” He found safe anchorage and went on to report if a hostile power should… Read More ›
No one is happier today than Beijing. More hoops for law-abiding gun owners to hop through means an easier cakewalk if China invaded it’s number one enemy. Without the logistic ability to invade the US, all of China’s antics in… Read More ›
The following is based on a translation of a report on a Chinese news site: A report in mil.huanqiu.com says that China had a long and hard discussion with Russia for 7 years for the purchase of Russian Su-35 fighter jets,… 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 ›
Speaking at this year’s First Sea Lord/RUSI International Sea Power Conference in London, Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet, did not shy away from controversy. He emphatically stated that the… Read More ›
The following is based on a translation of a report in Chinese media: The “On Military and War” column of news.ifeng.com published an article titled “Turning Mischief Reef into the Pearl Harbor of the South China Sea is of vital… 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 ›
In colonial texts about China, the ruling mandarins were often described as inscrutable—cunning, and full of intricate stratagems born of the world’s oldest bureaucracy. The opacity of its Communist leaders helped perpetuate some of those stereotypes, but they are truly… Read More ›
The following is based on translations from reports in Chinese media: In the face of the Pentagon’s anticipated next move to send warships and warplanes to patrol the areas of the South China Sea that China claims as its territorial… 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 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 ›
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 ›
China has warned Philippine air force and navy planes at least six times to leave areas around the disputed South China Sea, the Philippine military commander responsible for the region told a Senate hearing on Thursday. While Vice Admiral Alexander… Read More ›
Following a year of China’s flagrant and aggressive activities in contested waters, some in Washington are calling for President Obama to cancel China’s invitation to the largest maritime military exercise in the world. Some leaders in Congress and the military… Read More ›
The secretary-general of Southeast Asia’s 10-member trade and security bloc Sunday said the group can’t agree to China’s use of its so-called nine-dash line to claim the contested waters of the South China Sea as Beijing continues its land-reclamation efforts… Read More ›
The following is based on a translation from Chinese media: China reported some time ago that it was developing large ground effect vehicles as a means of transport between China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. In this way,… Read More ›
The following is based on translations from Chinese media: China’s qianzhan.com reports that in early March, the islands and reefs occupied by China in the Spratly Islands will covered by China’s mobile phone and TV networks. That is quite a… Read More ›
The following is a translation from Chinese media: In addition to the artificial islands China has been building on Johnson South Reef, Cuarteron Reef, Hughes Reef, Mckennan Reef, Gaven Reef, Eldad Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef, China has… Read More ›
This is the reality: China’s military leaders are rushing the construction of military bases in six different reef areas inside the Philippines’ exclusive 200 mile economic zone. The Philippines is doing nothing to immediately stop it. In a year’s time,… Read More ›
In my article “Chinese Troops to Seize Zhongye Island Back from the Philippines in 2014” on January 11, 2014, I said, Chinese troops were planning to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014”. In my article two days… Read More ›
New satellite images have largely confirmed earlier reports that China is building a military base near the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands that Japan also claims and administers. Last week IHS Jane’s reported that satellite images from October 2014 show that China is… Read More ›
Vietnam and China moved their sabre-rattling over the South China Sea into the legal arena this week as Hanoi lodged a submission with an arbitral tribunal at The Hague and rejected a Chinese position paper. Beijing swiftly dismissed Vietnam’s challenge…. Read More ›
Last week the US State Department released a useful report on China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. As M Taylor Fravel tweeted, it is a must-read for anyone interested in maritime security, the law of the sea, or… Read More ›
The following commentary is based on media releases by the Chinese government: Reuters says in its report “China denounces Philippine ‘pressure’ over sea dispute arbitration” yesterday, that China has denounced the Philippines for putting it under pressure with international arbitration… Read More ›
Vietnam on Tuesday showed off its two most powerful warships in the first-ever port call to the Philippines, but an official said it was not trying to challenge China’s superior naval forces amid tension in the South China Sea. Hanoi… Read More ›
A Philippine court on Monday found nine Chinese fishermen guilty of poaching and environmental crimes for fishing in disputed waters, in a case that has strained relations with China. The nine, arrested in May, were fined $100,000 each for poaching… 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 ›
China‘s reclamation projects in the disputed waters of the West Philippine Sea won’t strengthen its claims, a legal analyst said. Robert Beckman, director of the Centre for International Law, said in a S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) commentary… Read More ›
Philippine military chief Gregorio Pio Catapang likens his task to a boxing match. Dwarfed by neighbours like China, with whom ties are strained, he’d like his forces to last at least a few rounds in the ring. “Even if we… Read More ›
The Philippines will propose a freeze on all activity that raises tension in disputed waters in the South China Sea as part of a three-part plan at a regional security meeting next month, Manila‘s foreign minister said on Tuesday. Southeast… Read More ›
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 ›
Prelude To Conflict 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… Taiwan, Vietnam in discussions over protecting investors …Taiwan-Vietnam relations continue… 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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
