News
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Geneva workshop statement welcomes tribunal’s East Sea ruling
A workshop on the East Sea issue held in Geneva, Switzerland on December 6 issued a statement welcoming the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague on the Philippines’s lawsuit against China’s claims in the waters. Geneva workshop statement welcomes tribunal’s East Sea ruling, Government news, Vietnam breaking news, politic news, vietnamnet bridge, english news, Vietnam…
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Exclusive: Risking Beijing’s ire, Vietnam begins dredging on South China Sea reef
By Lincoln Feast and Greg Torode | SYDNEY/HONG KONG Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway. Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi’s main South China Sea rival, Beijing, which…
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The Danger of the Gray Zone: Flawed Responses to Emerging Unconventional Threats
In the South China Sea, islands able to sustain PLA military operations have been constructed from what previously had been strips of sand or small atolls while Chinese naval militias harass commercial fishing fleets. In Crimea and eastern Ukraine, soldiers lacking national attribution have assisted local forces demanding changes in political boundaries. Russian and Chinese actions have demonstrated a shift…
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Philippine Marine Sanctuary in Disputed Sea Risks Upsetting China
TAIPEI — A marine sanctuary proposed by the Philippine president inside a contested South China Sea shoal risks upsetting rival claimant China despite an ecological mission and a recent thaw in relations with the Asian superpower. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told local media in late November he planned to issue an executive order declaring the triangle of water inside Scarborough…
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America And China’s Military Beef Over The South China Sea, Explained
President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented phone call with Taiwan’s newly-elected president Tsai Ing-wen has a lot to do with Washington’s often complicated military tensions with Beijing. Why? The South China Sea, a disputed swath of ocean of which China claims a majority of territory. It is true, as Trump mentioned in his tweet, that America sells billions of dollars in arms…
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South China Sea maritime diplomacy hurts Filipino fishermen
The Scarborough Shoal has been declared a marine sanctuary by Philippine President Duterte. Touted as a solution for territorial tensions, does the move play into Chinese interests? Ana P. Santos reports from Manila. Konflikt China Philippinen – Fischerboote nördlich von Manila (Ted Aljibe/AFP/GettyImages) At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) summit in Peru last month, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that…
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Settlement: Trump Administration Must Study Environmental Risks Before Approving Deep-sea Mining
WASHINGTON— Before the Trump administration approves any deep-sea mining projects it must conduct an in-depth analysis of the risks to wildlife and underwater ecosystems, according to a legal settlement filed today in response to a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit. The Center sued the federal government in 2015 over its approval of exploratory permits for a Lockheed Martin subsidiary to…
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Obama’s Asian pivot faces uncertain fate
As US President-elect Donald Trump continues to stir up a hornet’s nest in Washington and elsewhere in America, the outgoing and lame-duck presidency of Barack Obama looks spent, its foreign policy agenda at risk of reversal and dismantlement. This is a pity because Mr Obama had his heart in the right places. He tried to make the world a better…
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Vietnam respects countries’ rights in East Sea: diplomat
Vietnam has respected rights of countries in the East Sea, including overflight and navigation freedom and trade without restriction, in line with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), said Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh. In his speech at a workshop hosted by the working group of alternative strategies (WGAS) in New Delhi…
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Energy Demands Increasingly Shape China’s Behavior in the South China Sea
With China’s aggressive posture in the South China Sea undermining the popular narrative of its peaceful rise, many experts correctly point to the dual tides of nationalism and militarization as drivers of hostile behavior. But leaning too heavily on these explanations conceals a third factor behind Beijing’s maritime claims: a burgeoning demand for energy. http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/20573/energy-demands-increasingly-shape-china-s-behavior-in-the-south-china-sea
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US Coast Guard Eager For Deployment To The Highly-Contested South China Sea
The head of the U.S. Coast Guard wants to send ships to the South China Sea, a heavily contested region where China is taking a hard-line stance. “When you look at the East and South China seas, look at China’s Coast Guard, it is really the first face of China,” Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft told Voice of America.…
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Imagining the US Navy’s First South China Sea FONOP in the Trump Era
Where the incoming administration chooses to stage the next FONOP will say a lot about tactical choices. Over at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Bonnie Glaser, Zack Cooper, and Peter Dutton outline a strong case for the next U.S. administration to stage its first freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea near Mischief Reef. Given the large…