News
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Philippines to take action if Chinese weather stations in South China Sea are verified — Palace
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 6) — Malacañang said it will await confirmation on reports that China has set up weather stations on areas in the South China Sea and assured that the government will take action if this is proven true. “The government will undertake appropriate actions once these reports are properly validated,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Tuesday.…
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Palace: Never too late to assert arbitral award in South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines — It would never be too late to assert the Philippines’ claims in the West Philippine Sea because an international arbitral court had ruled in favor of Manila on the maritime row, Malacañang said Monday. The Philippines calls the portion of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone the West Philippine Sea. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo…
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China’s commander-in-chief has ordered the military command overseeing the South China Sea to prepare for war
China’s commander-in-chief has ordered the military command overseeing the contested South China Sea to “concentrate preparations for fighting a war,” according to the South China Morning Post. Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the Southern Theater Command Thursday, again stressing the need build a force that can “fight and win wars” in the modern age. “We have to step up combat…
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US Navy chief visits Philippines, receives updates on South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines — Adm. John Richardson, United States chief of naval operations, received an update on the situation in the South China Sea during his recent visit to the Philippines. Richardson went to Palawan to get an update on the disputed waterway from Lt. Gen. Rozzano Briguez, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Command. The US Navy…
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US and China risking a military mishap without ‘mature communications’, America’s former top East Asian diplomat warns
“We must be extra careful not to have a mishap like EP-3 in the current environment,” Susan Thornton, the former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the South China Morning Post in an interview. “I’m not confident that we have adequate communication mechanisms in place to prevent escalation.” Thornton, who retired from the State…
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China Should Stop Making Noise In The South China Sea
China should stop making noise in the South China Sea. It isn’t good for peace. It isn’t good for trade. And it isn’t good for financial markets of the region. China claims the South China Sea as its own sea. All of it, the sea surface, the resources beneath, and the airspace above. “From China’s perspective, the South China Sea…
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Philippines must strike a balance when China’s Xi Jinping comes to visit, analysts say
The Philippines will court Beijing for further investment when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Manila next month, temporarily sidestepping issues in the South China Sea as it hedges its bets in the ongoing trade and strategic tussles between China and the United States, observers say. While the nation’s strongman President Rodrigo Duterte has made waves with his pivot towards Beijing…
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Top US Navy officer tells China to behave at sea
MELBOURNE, Australia — The U.S. Navy’s chief of naval operations has called on China to return to a previously agreed-upon code of conduct for at-sea encounters between the ships of their respective navies, stressing the need to avoid miscalculations. During a Nov. 1 teleconference with reporters based in the Asia-Pacific region, Adm. John Richardson said he wants the People’s Liberation…
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Beijing operates weather stations in South China Sea artificial islands
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 3) — China said on Thursday it has begun operating weather monitoring stations in the artificial islands in the South China Sea. “These projects are designed to observe the maritime, hydrological, meteorological conditions and air qualities, and provide such services as maritime warning and forecast, tsunami alert, weather forecast, air quality forecast, and disaster prevention…
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Should China fuss about Royal Navy in South China Sea?
Britain is a major naval player no longer. It can only offer a support presence for other western powers in the Indo-Pacific Chinese has long historical memories of British men-of-war in the South China Seas, dating back to the humiliations of the Opium Wars. But while Beijing warns London not to get engaged in the area’s complex maritime disputes, it…
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Chinese and American people will save relations despite trade war and South China Sea threats, says ambassador to US Cui Tiankai
‘Enough of trade war threats, strategic rivalry, sabre rattling in the South China Sea,’ says Cui Tiankai in speech in Washington Rivalry and confrontation are prevailing but ordinary people will turn the tide, he suggests. China’s ambassador to the US said on Tuesday that the “goodwill” and “wisdom” of the Chinese and American people would carry the countries through a…
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Greg Poling: Imagining an Effective South China Sea Code of Conduct
After more than a decade of stalled negotiations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have, since 2016, made headway on a Code of Conduct to govern their interactions in the South China Sea, where four ASEAN members — the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei — have made explicit territorial claims along with China, which has sought to assert…