News
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The Big Story Behind China’s New Military Strategy
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAAs China reemerges as one of the globe’s leading powers, just what type of actor it will be on the world stage has become a subject of intense debate among China watchers and the broader public. With tensions rising to what one eminent China scholar has called a “tipping point” in U.S.-China relations, the Chinese government released its first-ever white…
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The Real Danger in the South China Sea
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAWashington has made its point loud and clear in the South China Sea. But it is likely to be lost on Beijing. “There should be no mistake: the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter declared at a late May gathering of Asia Pacific’s top defense officials in Singapore. That statement came a few…
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Stirring up the South China Sea (III): A Fleeting Opportunity for Calm
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, ASEAN, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAEXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS The South China Sea is the cockpit of geopolitics in East Asia. Five countries – Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – plus Taiwan have substantial and competing territorial and maritime claims in a body of water that is both an important source of hydrocarbons and fisheries and a vital trade corridor. The recent history…
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Is China Playing A Long Game In The South China Sea?
China’s construction of new islands in the South China Sea has attracted a great deal of entirely predictable criticism and controversy. Surely no-one connected with this decision can be surprised at this outcome. One assumes that China’s military planners run just the same sorts of simulations and contingency exercises as their counterparts in the West. Whoever signed off on the…
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A ‘maritime coalition’ must confront China, urges US analyst
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s time for countries threatened by China’s belligerent claims of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea to push back with a maritime coalition that has “enforcement capabilities,” a strategic analyst urges in a recent article in the New York-based Journal of Political Risk. With joint enforcement capabilities — backed by Japan, the US and Australia…
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Militant group urges Filipinos to unite vs Chinese aggression
Anti China Protesters, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAA militant group denounced Saturday the latest incident where a Chinese coast guard allegedly fired flares at a Philippine fishing boat over the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares slammed China’s aggressive actions and urged Filipinos to unite to pressure China and counter its moves over the West Philippine Sea. “There…
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Whose splendid isolation?
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAIn the dock for its aggressive expansionism in the South China Sea, China seems undeterred THE Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual powwow in Singapore for Asia-Pacific defence chiefs, has begun to follow a pattern: America and its friends in Asia line up to criticise China for its alleged transgressions in the seas around its coast; China issues fierce, mendacious and unconvincing…
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SOUTH CHINA SEA WATCH: US ups pressure with overflights
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAUS RATCHETS UP PRESSURE ON CHINA The U.S. military has begun actively — and more publicly — challenging China’s sovereignty claims over half a dozen artificial islands Beijing has been rapidly constructing through massive land reclamation. On May 22, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft — a militarized version of the Boeing 737 — flew from Clark Air Base…
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Taiwan coast guard launches new ships as South China Sea tensions rise
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan – Taiwan’s coast guard on Saturday commissioned its biggest ships for duty in the form of two 3,000-ton patrol vessels, as the island boosts defenses amid concerns about China’s growing footprint in the disputed South China Sea. The new vessels will be able to dock at a new port being constructed on Taiping Island, the largest of the…
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Philippine defence minister ‘gravely concerned’ over reports Chinese warship fired warning shot in South China Sea
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, South China Sea Dispute, SpratlysChina has been rapidly expanding its occupied reefs in the Spratly archipelago, alarming other claimants and drawing sharp criticism from the United States, Japan and Europe. The fishing boat was reportedly near a reclaimed reef when the shot was fired. “If indeed this happened, it is a cause of grave concern,” Philippine defence minister Voltaire Gazmin told journalists in a…
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Beijing tells India to lay off South China Sea, defends PoK corridor
India can’t explore for oil in disputed areas of the South China Sea, Beijing said Thursday while defending its $46 billion trade corridor through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir — described as unacceptable by New Delhi — as a “livelihood project”. A network of roads, railways and pipelines, the 3,000km-long corridor aims to connect China’s northwestern Xinjiang region to Gwadar port in Pakistan’s…
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China now tussling with Malaysia in S China Sea
A Chinese coast guard vessel has been accused of encroaching on Malaysia’s territorial waters in the South China Sea. Malaysia’s Borneo Post reported Wednesday that a patrol boat of the China Coast Guard ha4 been detected encroaching on the waters surrounding the Luconia Shoals, which are administered by Malaysia but also claimed by China and Taiwan. The vessel has been…