News
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US warship transits South China Sea to challenge ‘unlawful maritime claims’
A United States warship sailed through the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea on Thursday after passing through the Taiwan Strait, in defiance of a protest from Beijing. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur had conducted freedom of navigation operations in the vicinity of the Paracels, which are claimed by…
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China does not possess the WPS
President Duterte’s mantra is “China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea (WPS).” The President made this declaration on several occasions: the November 2018 Asean-India Summit in Singapore, his July 2019 and 2020 State of the Nation Addresses, and his late night TV addresses on April 19, 2021 and April 29, 2021. The reason for this extraordinary concession is…
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Can a United Opposition Defeat Duterte at the 2022 Philippine Elections?
Opposition groups in the Philippines have joined forces in a bid to defeat the party or anointed successor of President Rodrigo Duterte. The country’s presidential election is scheduled for May 9, 2022. Duterte is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term, but some of his supporters are urging him to run as vice president if his daughter, Davao City Mayor…
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Unmasking China’s Maritime Militia
China has long denied that it uses maritime militia forces to assert its maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea, often describing the Chinese vessels clustered around disputed reefs and islets as just fishing boats. But the paper trail left by the Chinese bureaucracy tells a different story. Radio Free Asia analyzed bidding documents, corporate records, and other…
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Japan, Vietnam leaders oppose China’s maritime actions in phone talks
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed their opposition to China’s growing maritime assertiveness during phone talks Monday, the first between the two leaders since Chinh was elected last month. Can Beijing stop other countries getting dragged into their island dispute? In their roughly 30-minute call, the two also voiced grave concerns…
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Enrile claims West PH Sea outside jurisdiction of defense treaty with US
MANILA – Former senator Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday claimed the United States will not be able to protect the Philippines if hostilities with China erupt in the West Philippine Sea. Enrile, in a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, claimed the the area is not covered by the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippine and the US. According to…
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US ready to pull troops from Philippines ‘in months’ if no new VFA: expert
Some 400 American soldiers and defence contractors deployed in the southern Philippines could be pulled out within months if Washington and Manila do not sign a new Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) by then. So heard an international conference titled “The Philippines Hedging Between Alliance or Appeasement: Can the Biden Administration Tip the Balance?” The US was “ready to withdraw” the…
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Lacson: PH should boost alliance amid sea row with China
Members of the Philippine Coast Guard participate during a training on navigation, small boat operations, maintenance, and logistical operations in the West Philippine Sea in Palawan on April 24, 2021. Philippine Coast Guard, Handout MANILA – The Philippines should seek alliance with the world’s powerful militaries amid its maritime dispute with China, a senator said Tuesday. “As I have repeatedly…
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Philippines’ Duterte issues gag order on cabinet over South China Sea spat
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte barred his cabinet from talking about the South China Sea in public on Monday after weeks of strong rebukes by his ministers against China’s conduct in the contested waters. Tensions between the Philippines and its giant neighbour have escalated since March, with Manila filing daily diplomatic protests over the presence of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels…
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Tiny Sandy Cay reveals the big lie
There is a tiny sandbar called Sandy Cay about two nautical miles from Pag-asa Island, which at about 37 hectares is the largest Philippine-occupied island in the Spratlys. Before 2017, Sandy Cay was a disappearing sandbar. Half of the year Sandy Cay would be above water at high tide when the action of the waves build up the sand on…
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The United Kingdom Dispatches HMS Queen Elizabeth to Confront China
Are U.S. allies finally rallying around Washington’s more aggressive stance toward Beijing? By Michael Auslin, the author of Asia’s New Geopolitics: Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific and is a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. People watch from the shore as the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier leaves Portsmouth Naval Base in southeastern England on May 1. For more than…
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Mad at Duterte West PH Sea jet ski quip, fisherman says President a ‘joke’
MANILA – A Filipino fisherman in Infanta, Pangasinan said Wednesday he took offense at President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent clarification that his 2016 campaign statement of riding a jet ski and challenging Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea was just a joke. “Kaming mga mangingisda dito, masama ang loob namin. Ba’t gano’n lang, joke joke lang ‘yong sinabi niya sa…