News
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‘China claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea’
Washington: China is ‘coercing’ its neighbours to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to its advantage, the Pentagon has told Congress amid Beijing flexing its muscles in the East and South China Seas. As China continues its economic and military ascendance, asserting power through an all-of-nation long-term strategy, it will continue to pursue a military modernisation programme that seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony…
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Chinese newspaper questions Britain’s ‘provocative signals’ in South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines — British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson’s confirmation that a UK warship will sail in the South China Sea sends provocative signals to China, a Chinese state-run tabloid said. Earlier this week, Williamson confirmed that British warship HMS Sutherland will sail through the South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation in the region. In an interview…
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Philippines seethes over Chinese build-up in South China Sea
Under Singapore’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing is rapidly deepening military-to-military relations with its smaller neighbours. During the Asean Defence Ministers Meetings Plus earlier this month, China and Southeast Asian countries agreed on a series of new initiatives to solidify their burgeoning ties. Later this year, the two sides are set to hold their first-ever joint…
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Has China Bought Brunei’s South China Sea Silence?
An abundance of oil has supported the extravagant and famous lifestyles of Brunei’s royal family and their coterie of well connected elites for decades. But it now appears the tiny sultanate has fallen on hard times, a situation that has been setting off alarm bells not only among some within the country, but also in Southeast Asia and beyond. In…
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China coercing neighbours to reorder Indo-Pacific region: Pentagon
WASHINGTON: China is coercing its neighbours to reorder the Indo-Pacific region, the Pentagon told Congress in its annual budget proposals for the fiscal 2019, beginning October 1 this year. Trump administration today released their proposal for the fiscal year 2019 budget. Fiscal years are different from calendar years. The budgetary proposal covers October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019. “China…
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British warship to sail through disputed South China Sea
SYDNEY, Australia – A British warship will sail from Australia through the disputed South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation rights, a senior official said Tuesday in a move likely to irk Beijing. China claims nearly all of the resource-rich waterway and has been turning reefs and islets into islands and installing military facilities such as runways…
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South China Sea Photos Suggest a Military Building Spree by Beijing
China has spent years building military outposts on a group of contested islands in the South China Sea — a project that has left the country at odds with many of its neighbors and the United States. First, there was the dredging, in which ships sucked sediment from the seabed and pumped it atop formerly undeveloped reefs. Then came the…
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China seeks to name sea features in Philippine Rise
MANILA, Philippines — Why is China interested in conducting research in the Philippine Rise, an area in the Western Pacific where it has no maritime territorial claim? One possible answer, according to official sources: Beijing is seeking naming rights for seven or eight submarine mountains or seamounts and ridges in Benham or Philippine Rise and the surrounding Philippine Sea. The…
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Freedom of navigation in South China Sea
The United States Navy (USN) conducted a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea on Jan 17 and, as anticipated, it created a current of excitement among security analysts. The main bugbear being that the operations were conducted within the 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal that China claims as part of her territorial seas. China’s Ministry…
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Protect the ‘Philippine Rise’; Prevent the ‘Philippine fall’
By Fidel V. Ramos Former Philippine President “It would be ‘dumb’ of the Philippines to allow China to explore Philippine Rise despite Beijing’s disrespect for a UN-backed arbitral court ruling recognizing Manila’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea…..” — Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 15 January 2018) “Benham, or Philippine, Rise is part of…
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China to bring 4G+ telecom services on man-made islands in South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines — China’s navy and telecommunication corporations are reportedly working to improve communications system in Chinese-occupied features in the disputed South China Sea by bringing 4G+ services in the area. The Philippines claims parts of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone and calls it the West Philippine Sea. On Friday, state-run news agency Xinhua reported that…
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PH govt, being the steward of the national patrimony, needs to be transparent on Benham Rise
THE news that the Philippines has given its consent to China to conduct scientific research in Benham Rise, renamed Philippine Rise, has provoked much controversy. The Benham Rise, with a submarine area roughly the size of Greece, is believed to be rich in gas deposits. There is, therefore, great anxiety, in being informed about the measures that the Philippines is…