News
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Will South China Sea Eventually Belong To China?
The South China Sea has been at the center of tensions since Beijing decided to push its initiatives in the region. With more nations stepping up their claims and defenses, analysts say that China is working on a more robust strategy to claim the region. Will South China Sea eventually belong to China? Beijing has empowered its coast guard vessels…
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Vietnam to China: Move Your Oil Rig out of the South China Sea
China’s HYSY 981 is once again operating near the Gulf of Tonkin, to Vietnam’s dismay. In what has become something of a yearly ritual, Vietnam and China are once again trading diplomatic barbs over a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea. In May 2014, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 (HYSY 981) oil platform moved…
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China’s Super Strategy to Dominate South China Sea: Little Green Fisherman
China’s militarized fishing fleet is Beijing’s analogue to Russia’s ‘little green men’. The protection of ‘innocent actors’ from local authorities (for instance, the Indonesian Coast Guard lawfully defending its EEZ) is only the latest event in which Chinese coast guard vessels were empowered to conduct acts of war. Article 62 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the…
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China lighthouse on Subi reef threatens peace–PH
SAN FERNANDO CITY—The Philippines on Thursday slammed China for operating a lighthouse on Zamora (Subi) Reef in the Spratly archipelago, charging that Beijing’s move undermines peace and stability in the region. Zamora Reef is claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, but controlled by China, which built an artificial island there and on six other reefs in the Spratlys to bolster…
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Ma conducts South China Sea seminar for MOFA officials
ROC President Ma Ying-jeou discusses the finer points of overlapping EEZs with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs April 8 in Taipei City. (Staff photo/Chin Hung-hao) President Ma Ying-jeou conducted a South China Sea seminar for Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials at MOFA headquarters April 8 in Taipei City, sharing his extensive knowledge and experience of Taiping Island and…
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Andrew Shearer: One way forward in the South China Sea
Officers aboard a Soryu submarine of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force during a fleet review at Sagami Bay, off Yokosuka, south of Tokyo in this Oct. 15, 2015 file photo. © Reuters With tensions rising daily in the South China Sea, Russia modernizing its Pacific naval fleet, an increasingly unpredictable nuclear-armed North Korea next door, and Chinese planes and ships…
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South China Sea War: China In 140 Miles Off Manila, US Admiral Wants Aggressive Confrontation
If it were up to Admiral Harry Harris, U.S. response to China’s aggressive island building just 140 miles from Manila, Philippines will be as equally aggressive. However, he is encountering the biggest obstacle in the form of the White House. Recent evidence has shown that China is now building another island on top of Scarborough Shoal, which is just 140…
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US won’t exit South China Sea: Beazley
Australia should warn the Chinese the Americans “aren’t going away” when it comes to the dispute over the South China Sea, former ambassador to the US Kim Beazley believes. Mr Beazley says it’s time for the Chinese to understand the US is capable of creating an “urgent” situation and won’t run away from the territorial dispute. “We’re always talking about…
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G-7 ministers to urge respect for court rulings in territory disputes
TOKYO — Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven gathering in Japan next week will call on nations engaged in territorial disputes to abide by court rulings, sending a thinly veiled message to China to follow international law. The communique issued after the ministerial meeting in Hiroshima that ends Monday will not mention China by name. But it will indirectly…
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China switches on lighthouse on artificial island in South China Sea
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has begun operating a lighthouse on one of its artificial islands in the South China Sea near where a U.S. warship sailed last year to challenge China’s territorial claims. China claims most of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. But neighbors Brunei, Malaysia,…
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South China Sea: Is Beijing making a new ‘strategic strait’?
A major test for the future of Asia is on the horizon, and it’s centered on the South China Sea. Within the next three months, a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to rule on China’s expansive and somewhat ambiguous territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the Philippines contends are invalid under…
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Why China will go rogue
China is set to defy world opinion and go rogue. Here’s why: In a few weeks, the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the International Court of Justice in The Hague is expected to be announced. It is widely expected that the tribunal will decide in favor of the Philippines’ central complaint that China’s brazen occupation of rocks,…