West Philippine Sea
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Why No One Wins a War over the South China Sea
The gradual expansion of Chinese power in the South China Sea has caused great alarm. However, it should be less alarming than the looming prospect of a trade war, in which the United States will be fighting alone. A recent near-collision between Chinese and U.S. Navy destroyers has focused new attention on the potential for […]
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President Trump is helping Beijing win in the South China Sea
For years now, China has been at war against the United States in the South China Sea, except Washington didn’t notice until the process was well underway. The Chinese way of war — modeled after the philosopher of middle antiquity, Sun Tzu — is to win without ever having to fight. Thus the Chinese have […]
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Are Trump and Xi on the brink of a new Cold War?
Beijing (CNN)There is growing realization — and fear — among Chinese officials in Beijing that US President Donald Trump could be serious in his promise to upend the types of bilateral relations they have become accustomed to in the past few decades. It is a shock for Beijing to realize that reports about an administration-wide […]
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Philippines joining Beijing’s South China Sea drill ‘shows nations are hedging bets’ in Sino-US tussle
Southeast Asian countries also cooperating with US and Japan to keep China in check in the region, analysts say The assessment follows Monday’s decision by the Philippines to join a regional military exercise involving China and other Asean countries later this month, and comes days after a Chinese destroyer and an American warship came within […]
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China’s super trawlers are stripping the ocean bare as its hunger for seafood grows
Captain Lin Jianchang is a fisherman born and bred. Sitting on his small trawler mending nets, the 54-year-old says times are tough. “When I started to fish we could fill our boat completely in an hour, we couldn’t move, there were fish everywhere,” he says. “Now there’s less fish and it’s rare to get a […]
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Beijing’s challenge to US warship in South China Sea ‘deliberate and calculated’, observers say
By the normal rules for ensuring navigational safety ‘there’s no way we would see ships getting so close’, analyst says The incident happened when a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer sailed within 41 metres (135 feet) of the USS Decatur in an operation described by Washington as “unsafe and unprofessional” and by Beijing as a necessary defence […]
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The US military is reportedly planning to send US warships, combat aircraft, and troops through the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in November in a series of exercises designed to send a message to Beijing.
The proposal, which comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and China, has yet to be approved. In recent weeks, Washington and Beijing have quarreled over trade, sanctions, Taiwan, repeated bomber flights over disputed seas, and a confrontation between US and Chinese warships. The US military is reportedly planning to put on […]
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US will step up FONOPs
After the “close encounter of the unsafe kind” last week between US Navy destroyer USS Decatur and Chinese destroyer Lanzhou during a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) conducted by the American ship in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the Spratlys, the US Pacific Fleet is drafting a classified proposal for a series of operations […]
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Tensions are rising in the South China Sea, and a US ally there has already drawn ‘red lines’ with China
Tensions between between Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea appear to have spiked in recent days. The situation there is already fraught, as many countries have challenged China over its expansive claims and its construction on contested territory. The US, China, and the Philippines have already had a showdown over one of those […]
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US navy plans major show of strength in South China Sea as warning to Beijing
Freedom of navigation operation will take place amid rising tensions and near-collision between USS Decatur and Chinese vessel The United States Pacific Fleet has drawn up a plan for a major show of force as a warning to China that will indicate its determination to counter Beijing’s military activity, it was reported on Thursday amid […]