News
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America’s instructive humiliation in the South China Sea: Spengler
“Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should: We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in 1902 after the Boers humiliated the British Army in the first round of the Boer War. America should express the same gratitude towards China, which has humiliated America in the…
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United States to remain world’s Number 1 power ‘for a fairly long time’: Beijing
The United States will remain the world’s leading power for a long time, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday, but he stressed global affairs should not be dominated by one country. Wang made the remarks during an interview with the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, ahead of the seventh ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Doha last…
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Duterte, the Americans, the Chinese, and the communists
President Duterte has three main priorities: one, kill drug lords and those guilty of heinous crimes like rape and murder; two, extricate something practical and profitable from the Philippine territorial claim in the West Philippine Sea; and three, share power with the communist rebels to bring to an end the longest communist insurgency in the world. Relatedly, for the Muslim…
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China wants TT backing on South China Sea
AS PART of its ongoing international blitz to lobby countries to back it, China yesterday called on Trinidad and Tobago to “stand with righteousness” and support its claim to territories in the South China Sea. In a statement published in the print media yesterday, China’s Ambassador Huang Xingyuan argued the issue – which is likely to escalate with an international…
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China’s Giant Spy Drone Stalks Foreign Warships
The simmering South China Sea dispute is getting closer to boiling over—with Beijing’s fighter jets buzzing U.S. spy planes and now sightings of a high-tech new surveillance drone. China has dramatically escalated its military expansion into the disputed waters and airspace of the South China Sea. Deploying ships, jet fighters, and, reportedly, a high-tech surveillance drone, Beijing is moving quickly…
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Will the United States Soon End the Arms Embargo on Vietnam?
This weekend, President Obama will travel to Vietnam, making the third U.S. presidential visit to the country since the end of the Vietnam War. Obama’s trip, which will also include a stop in Japan, will encompass several priorities. He will try to reassure allies that the United States remains committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even though the deal has stalled…
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Taiwan’s Tsai takes office as hostile Beijing looks on
(UPDATED) TAIPEI–Taiwan swore in Tsai Ing-wen as its first female president Friday ahead of a grand ceremony celebrating the island’s unique identity, likely to raise hackles in Beijing as ties with China rapidly cool. Tsai took office after winning a landslide victory in January to defeat the ruling Kuomintang, ending an eight-year rapprochement with Beijing under outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou.…
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Cambodia Stuck in the Middle Over South China Sea
PHNOM PENH — On the thorny issue of Southeast Asia’s territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Cambodia finds itself caught in the middle. On one side, its fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) say the regional bloc should be central to dealing with the disputes. On the other, China—the world’s most populous nation and second…
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Indonesia considering South China Sea patrols with Malaysia, Philippines: Military chief
JAKARTA: Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines may conduct joint patrols in parts of the disputed South China Sea, said Indonesia’s military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo. At a meeting in Yogyakarta on May 5, foreign ministers of the three ASEAN countries had agreed to conduct patrols to combat piracy in the Sulu and Sulawesi Sea. However, on Wednesday (May 18), the…
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South China Sea: 2 Chinese Fighters Conduct ‘Unsafe’ Intercept of US EP-3 Recon Aircraft
On Tuesday, in international airspace over the South China Sea, two Chinese fighter jets flew dangerously close to a U.S. EP-3 Aries signals reconnaissance aircraft. Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, confirmed on Wednesday to NBC News that “two tactical aircraft from the People’s Republic of China” had attempted a dangerous intercept against the…
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Chinese Intercept U.S. Military Spy Plane Over South China Sea
Two Chinese military aircraft intercepted a U.S. military reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea Tuesday. Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza said that the U.S. maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft was flying in a “routine patrol” in international airspace on May 17 when “two tactical aircraft from the People’s Republic of China” intercepted the U.S. plane. Image: A Chinese…
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Russia Weighs Into South China Sea Dispute With Asean Accord
WASHINGTON — Russia is set to finalize an agreement with Asean countries including controversial references to maritime navigation and militarization of the South China Sea, a draft of the accord obtained by VOA Khmer shows. According to a draft of the Sochi Declaration, which is dated May 7 and marked as the agreed text, Russia is moving towards a “strategic…