News
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Beijing Is Ready To Go Eyeball to Eyeball With Trump
The U.S. president-elect took the first steps up the ladder of escalation, but China’s seizure of a naval drone shows it’s glad to follow. Beijing Is Ready To Go Eyeball to Eyeball With Trump Spring has come early to the South China Sea. Many analysts had assumed that China would do something to test the newly elected president once he…
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Guns of the South China Sea
In the White House Rose Garden on Sept. 25, 2015, President Xi Jinping stood with President Barack Obama and pledged that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” on outcroppings in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Other top Chinese officials echoed this promise over the past year, even as airstrips were paved and military exercises carried out…
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Superpowers will only respect united Asean stand on South China Sea: Malay defence minister
Malaysia Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Asean should be united to handle South China Sea disputes. The superpower and China would respect ASEAN’s voice and stand. Instead, the fate and position of ASEAN countries would be determined by the world’s superpowers. He is of the view that ASEAN countries should have a united stand on South China Sea. Malaysia has…
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Scarborough Shoal a looming flashpoint in South China Sea
SCARBOROUGH SHOAL, South China Sea–In the predawn darkness, four lights flicker on the horizon. “Four Chinese ships,” says one of the Filipino fishermen ominously. We are 200 kilometers or so west of Infanta, a fishing village in the northern Philippines, from which we departed 19 hours earlier, and close to disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. As the…
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The challenge of winning over China
A basic fact oft overlooked is that international law operates differently from domestic law. “Sovereignty” plays a huge part in this. In relation to territorial claims, resolution by treaty or customary law, as well as third-party institutions, come in terms of other States’ recognition but not actual conferment of ownership. Effectively, the States claimants do that among themselves. Put another…
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Give China all Phl areas it’s claiming
TO BE consistent in his supine position, President Rodrigo Duterte might as well formally abandon Philippine rights over maritime areas being claimed by China and renounce the favorable UNCLOS arbitration ruling in The Hague last July on these disputes. After winning the arbitration case and keeping alive the claims over isles, shoals, reefs and other areas in Philippine waters, it…
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Donald Trump’s Top Priority Must Be a Strong China Strategy
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in January, one challenge looms large: China and its expanding role in the vital Asia-Pacific region. The incoming Administration will need to develop a long-term Pacific strategy—which ultimately eluded President Obama’s team. Creating a long-term policy toward China will be difficult: Trump’s recent questioning of the venerable “one China” policy and China’s…
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South China sea dispute: Possible $7 trillion meltdown on Australia’s export industry
A satellite image shows what CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says appears to be anti-aircraft guns and what are likely to be close-in weapons systems (CIWS) on the artificial island Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea in this image released on December 13, 2016. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe/Handout via Reuters Experts fear of a possible US$5 trillion…
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China justifies military installations
CHINA yesterday defended its right to put “necessary military installations” on its islands in the South China Sea, after a US thinktank said Beijing appeared to have deployed weapons such as anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that its findings were based on analysis of satellite images of…
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China defends its right to ‘ready slingshot’ in South China Sea
BEIJING – China defended its right on Thursday to put “necessary military installations” on artificial islands in the South China Sea, after a US think-tank said Beijing appeared to have deployed weapons such as anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said its findings, made available first to Reuters…
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PHL officials still verifying report on China’s weapons system in South China Sea
Philippine defense and military officials are still verifying reports that China has installed weapons system on the seven artificial islands it has built in the disputed South China Sea. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the issue, if true, is a matter of concern not just for the Philippines but other countries, as well. “We are verifying. But if true, it…
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Photos: How a “fishermen’s shelter” on stilts became a Chinese military base in the South China Sea
It started innocently enough, or so Beijing wanted the world to believe. In the mid-1990s, China built a small structure on stilts over a coral reef in the South China Sea, just 217 km (135 miles) from the coast of the Philippines’ Palawan island. At the time Beijing reassured Manila that the structure—a platform topped by four octagonal structures, with…