News
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Duterte wants to set aside ruling on South China Sea — for now
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday expressed his willingness to temporarily set aside the ruling of an arbitral tribunal in settling the country’s dispute with China. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference in Davao city, southern Philippines, on August 21. REUTERS/Lean Daval Jr During his speech at the National Heroes Day rites at the…
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China’s ‘Red Line’ Warning to Japan on South China Sea FONOPs Is Here to Stay
Last week, reports in the Japanese press, citing diplomatic sources, noted that China’s envoy in Tokyo had sent a strong message to Japan about its involvement in the South China Sea. According to Kyodo News Agency, Amabassador Cheng Yonghua had told a Japanese official that should Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force join up with U.S.-led freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) in…
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How the Chinese view International Law
With the precarious situation unfolding in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands over the past several months, the world’s attention has been drawn to China’s pivotal role of maintaining stability in the Asia-Pacific region. As China’s economic and political influence has grown in the past few decades, scholars have been analyzing and evaluating China’s approach to global politics,…
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The Natunas: Why Is Indonesia Developing A South China Sea Flashpoint?
Indonesia’s resource-rich Natuna Islands, located in the South China Sea northwest of Borneo, tend to be subject to periodic hype from the international media. That’s due to a couple of reasons. For one, though Indonesia is not officially a claimant in the South China Sea disputes, China’s nine-dash line overlaps with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Natunas (See:…
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East Timor-Australia maritime border dispute set to be negotiated at The Hague
The ongoing dispute between Australia and East Timor over maritime boundaries could be resolved in a landmark case that begins in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Monday. In April, East Timor triggered compulsory conciliation under the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over the disputed territory that contains large oil and gas deposits…
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South China Sea Fact: One of the Last Things South Vietnam Did Was Fight China
In January 1974, South Vietnamese forces clashed with the People’s Liberation Army Navy in the Paracel Island chain—a hot spot between China and present day Vietnam today. The two countries had established their competing claims to the islands—which the Vietnamese refer to as Hoang Sa and the Chinese call Xisha—well before they came to blows. The South Vietnamese navy regularly…
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Japan protests over Chinese radar in disputed East China Sea drilling rig
According to a spokesman for Tokyo’s foreign ministry, Japan discovered the radar in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, urging Beijing to explain the purpose. Japan has been calling on China to halt construction of oil and gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008…
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Expert: China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ Exists Only In Beijing’s Imagination
An intensifying debate about China’s meteoric and historically-unparalleled rise is leading some to question its allegedly peaceful nature. Apologists insist China’s rise is benevolent, but this belief isn’t one overwhelmingly shared by the international community, argues China expert Frank Ching in a recent article on China’s pursuit of regional dominance in the Asia Pacific. Building on China’s earlier, “hide your…
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A New Legal Landscape in the South China Sea
We need to fully grasp the significance of the Philippines v. China verdict. On July 12, 2016, the arbitral tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration case instituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) between the Philippines and China handed out its final Award. It has been widely reported that the…
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The Naming of Seas is a Practical Matter
Two centuries or more of western domination of much of the world has not only redrawn the global political maps but in many cases determined place names. If that seems arcane, it is not. It was western powers that named the South China Sea, for instance. It is a name that China is now using to seek to demonstrate its…
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Duterte to China ambassador: Talks should be based on Hague ruling
MANILA, Philippines — After asking Beijing to act in good faith in dealing with the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte insisted on Friday night that any upcoming bilateral talks with China be based on the arbitral tribunal’s ruling on the South China Sea dispute. The president stressed this point during an hours-long meeting with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua,…
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Electronic Warfare Comes to the South China Sea (and Why it Matters)
“An information technology-based war at sea is sudden, cruel and short…” was how the Chinese military characterized a peer-to-peer naval conflict at sea in a public statement at the beginning of the month during PLAN naval exercises. The exercises, occurring in the East China Sea, were designed to increase the PLAN’s “assault intensity, precision, stability and speed of troops amid…