News
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Indonesia’s South China Sea turn, Abe and Modi diverge
This is a weekly blog by Associate Editor Ravi Velloor offering his take on events around Asia and those that affect the region. It is exclusive to The Straits Times digital edition. So, Indonesia will henceforth refer to the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea. Talk of well, a…
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One year after the South China Sea ruling, a deceiving calm Beijing is now, by and large, calling the shots in the area under dispute
WATERLOO, ONTARIO – Much has changed and much remains the same since Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled last year on rival claims to the South China Sea. Dampening China’s ambitions in the highly contested area, the court ruled that China had no historical right over the South China Sea, recognizing instead that Beijing violated the…
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Fisheries diplomacy and the South China Sea Australia should step up to shore up the region’s fisheries
The dynamiting of reefs, plus overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and the impacts of climate change are all having an impact on fish stocks in the contested waters of the South China Sea. Anthony Bergin takes a look at what Australia could do about it. China’s island-building in the South China Sea may be the focus of…
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South China Sea concerns flare up as Duterte considers drilling in Beijing’s claims
Manila appears to be testing its relationship with Beijing as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte considers resuming energy exploration in the tension-laden South China Sea. Oil and gas drilling in the Reed Bank, located in the international waterway, has been suspended since 2014. That came after Manila launched an international arbitration case against Beijing over the latter’s territorial expansion in the…
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S. China Sea ruling: From roaring victory to a whisper
Hague decision’s value lies in its raising of Manila’s leverage On July 12 last year, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague handed the Philippines a sweeping victory in a case it filed challenging China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea. The tribunal struck down China’s “historic rights” to two-thirds of these waters. It ruled that China’s claims…
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Up to the Manilla to assert rights over South China Sea: Lawyer
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey transits the South China Sea May 6, 2017. Tomorrow will be exactly a year since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded the Philippines an important victory in its claims that China were encroaching it territorial integrity. This remains one of the most important lawsuit against China regarding its aggressive attitude…
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One year after PCA ruling, China must abide by the law
One year ago, on July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced that the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal had issued a unanimous award in favour of the Philippines in the South China Sea (SCS) conflict. The legally binding award has demolished China’s expansive historical claims in the SCS and pointed out that Beijing had no entitlement…
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Duterte’s gambit calms sea tension but renders law irrelevant —experts
BEIJING—President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to set aside the country’s arbitration victory against China over claims in the South China Sea may have deescalated the tension in disputed marine area but it has made the landmark ruling irrelevant, analysts say. Exactly a year after the tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague handed down the…
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Assessing the South China Sea Arbitral Award after One Year: Why China Won and the U.S. is Losing
A year ago today, an arbitral tribunal formed pursuant to the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea issued a blockbuster award finding much of China’s conduct in the South China Sea in violation of international law. As I detailed that day on this blog and elsewhere, the Philippines won about as big a legal victory as…
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Three PLAN Officers May Have Just Revealed What China Wants in the South China Sea
Earlier this year, Kyodo News published a tantalizing summary of a Chinese article that seemed to offer rare insights into Beijing’s intentions in the South China Sea. Unfortunately, Kyodo’s report was too vague to be fully appreciated, or long-remembered. We have tracked down the original. It is well worth a closer look. The article comes from a special class of…
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US report flags China’s fishing ban in disputed sea
CHINA’S ANNUAL moratorium on commercial fishing in waters it claims, including the disputed South China Sea where the Philippines has sovereign rights, “bear(s) watching closely,” considering the “sometimes-violent” incidents in the course of that ban’s enforcement, a US think tank said. In a report dated July 7, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International…
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Beijing now calls the shots in the South China Sea, and the US and Asean must accept this for lasting peace
The contest for the perceptual domination of the South China Sea, for the Asean claimants and thereby Southeast Asia, is over. China has won. There is little its regional opponents can do now. How did this come about and what are the options for dealing with it? [urlpreviewbox url=”http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/2101696/desktop”/]