News
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Seoul remains neutral in South China Sea dispute
Korea is taking no sides amid growing speculation that the United States is pressing Seoul to back its biggest ally in a South China Sea dispute. Washington and Beijing have exchanged words about the latter’s efforts to build artificial islands and military installations in the region that is raising tensions with neighboring countries. Amid the intensifying feud between the two…
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Everything you need to know about the South China Sea conflict – in under five minutes
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Facts, History, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USA1. Whose South China Sea is it, anyway? China’s claim to the South China Sea is based in history, dating back to records from the Xia and Han dynasties. China delineates its claims via the nine-dash line, which Chiang Kai Shek advanced in 1947. During China’s republican era, China surveyed, mapped and named 291 islands and reefs in the region.…
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China Unlikely to Halt Island Construction in Disputed Sea
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAChina will continue building islands in the disputed waters of the South China Sea but a major conflict in the region over the dispute is unlikely, according to a State Department security report. “Beijing will continue to develop contested territories in the South China Sea,” says the internal report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). “Unlike fishing boats or…
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Is the US advocating a ‘two-state theory’ in South China Sea?
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, Taiwan, USAThe US secretary of defense, Ashton Carter, has said the US will continue to patrol the South China Sea and fly across the Spratly reefs occupied by China as international waters. It’s clear that the US has determined to push for the “two-state theory” in the region. The US has always tried to avoid touching the issue of Taiwan being…
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G-7 ‘strongly opposes’ China’s land reclamation
MUNICH – Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Sunday expressed “strong opposition” to massive land reclamation in disputed waters in the South China Sea as part of China’s attempts to change the status quo by force. The leaders also agreed the G-7 will not lift sanctions on Russia unless it fully implements a ceasefire agreement struck in…
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Common Threat To Cool Dispute Between Taiwan And The Philippines
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, Taiwan, USATaiwan and the Philippines are arguing again about fishing rights in overlapping waters of the Western Pacific. But the dispute that netted three Taiwanese boats in the 250-kilometer-wide Luzon Strait last month will stop short of a flare-up like that of two years ago when Manila’s coast guard shot a Taiwanese fisherman to death at sea. Taiwan and the Philippines…
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Marine scientists say Chinese island reclamation is destroying coral reefs in South China Sea
Artificial Islands, China, Ecology, Environment, Environmental Impact, Fishing, Food Seurity, Philippines, Reclamation, South China Sea Dispute, SpratlysELEANOR HALL: Scientists from the United States and the Philippines have accused the Chinese Government of destroying coral reefs and fishing grounds with its reclamation program in the South China Sea. Beijing has intensified its dredging and construction on the disputed Spratly Islands in what many see as a challenge to US power in the Asia Pacific. The islands are…
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Is the US advocating a ‘two-state theory’ in South China Sea?
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAThe US secretary of defense, Ashton Carter, has said the US will continue to patrol the South China Sea and fly across the Spratly reefs occupied by China as international waters. It’s clear that the US has determined to push for the “two-state theory” in the region. The US has always tried to avoid touching the issue of Taiwan being…
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No, China Is Not Reclaiming Land in the South China Sea
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Regular Patrols, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USAEver since last year when satellite imagery confirmed that China was constructing artificial islands in the South China Sea, journalists, security specialists and even government officials uncritically have adopted terminology that obfuscates rather than clarifies the issues at stake. No term has been so abused as “land reclamation” both in its everyday usage and legal meaning. A commentary written by…
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Mother of all PH maps coming home
New personal directions Acquiring the map then became as much a personal goal as it was a business decision. “I’m in the technology business … and I endlessly admire the collaboration of skills and technology between Father Murillo Velarde and his team,” Velarde said. He added: “At 50, I think the Murillo Velarde map revealed and signaled new personal directions…
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G7 to express concern over East, South China Sea
TOKYO – Group of Seven leaders will express their concern over any unilateral action to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas amid tensions between China and a number of Asian countries, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper said on Saturday. At the end of the summit in Germany, which starts on Sunday, members will release a declaration calling…
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South China Sea: listening is more than what we want to hear
It begins with a bit of a chuckle. “Almost a full front row here. Banner day,” chirps Marie Harf, spokeswoman for American diplomacy. Harf is presiding at the podium for what is a weekday ritual at the US State Department, a question-and-answer session for reporters that presents the official view of the world as seen through Washington’s eyes. Harf has…