Ayungin Shoal
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South China Sea: Beijing’s ‘Salami Slicing’ Strategy – Analysis
Analysis, ASEAN, Ayungin Shoal, BRP Sierra Madre, China, Philippines, Salami Strategy, South China Sea Dispute, UNCLOSThe South China Sea is seeing increasing tension amongst the claimants. The Second Thomas Shoal is the latest addition to Beijing’s ‘Salami Slicing’ strategy of slowly acquiring small reefs and islands to consolidate its contested claim. By Darshana M. Baruah THE MOST recent tension in the South China Sea over the Second Thomas Shoal indicates a rising Chinese assertiveness in…
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Phl-China row antics hint at warlike drift
BY FORCE: Is physical occupation backed by military force the only option left in resolving territorial disputes between the Philippines and China in their common waters? That is another way of saying war looms as a possibility as the options for peaceful settlement dwindle. A military scenario is emerging with the reckless rhetoric coming from Beijing, the latest of which…
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The pressure on the Sierra Madre
Banyan The pressure on the Sierra Madre A beached ship risks becoming the South China Sea’s latest flashpoint Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition IN ONE respect, the meeting in Singapore this week between officials from the Association of South-East Asian Nations and China could not have come at a better time. Tensions are mounting dangerously in the…
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EDITORIAL – Territorial greed
Ayungin Shoal, BRP Sierra Madre, China, EEZ, Mischief Ref, Oil, Panganiban Shoal, Philippines, South China Sea DisputeIt must be good to wake up one day, look at the vast expanse of ocean around your land, and decide that all the waters as far as the eye can see are yours. That’s what Beijing is doing in the sea to its south that needs an official change of name because the country thinks if it’s named after…
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Int’l political group to China: Follow rule of law in South China Sea dispute
A transnational organization of political groups from 60 countries has called on China to follow the rule of law in resolving the territorial dispute over parts of the South China Sea. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) unanimously adopted an emergency resolution on March 19 calling on China to “respect its treaty obligations…
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What did Estrada and Arroyo promise China?
China escalated its already heightened maritime conflict with the Philippines on March 9 by blocking two Philippine vessels from delivering fresh supplies and troops to its marine outpost in the sunken ship Sierra Madre beside the Ayungin Shoal. Two days later, when the Philippines summoned China’s Charge d’Affairs in Manila to protest China’s provocation, Beijing immediately countered that it was the…
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China warns Philippines: We will never tolerate ‘occupation’ of disputed shoal
China warned the Philippines on Monday to abandon a disputed shoal in the South China Sea after Manila said it planned to challenge a Chinese naval blockade of the area by sending supplies to its troops stationed there. Last week, a senior Philippines military official said his country would send civilian supply ships to its soldiers deployed on a vessel…
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Eyes on Crimea, China makes its move
While much of the world was busy watching Russia swallow Crimea, few realized that an also dangerous territorial tit-for-tat had begun to unfold earlier this month more than 5,000 miles away in the South China Sea. At Second Thomas Shoal, a handful of Philippine marines have long been stationed and re-provisioned on the rusting deck of the BRP Sierra Madre,…
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China warns Philippines on disputed shoal
BEIJING – China warned the Philippines on Monday to abandon a disputed shoal in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) after Manila said it planned to challenge a Chinese naval blockade of the area by sending supplies to its troops stationed there. Last week, a senior Philippines military official said his country would send civilian supply ships to its…
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DFA belies alleged PH’s pull-out from Ayungin Shoal
The Department of Foreign Affairs today issued a statement to belie China’s allegation that the country has agreed to pull-out of the Ayungin Shoal. In a remote corner of the South China Sea, 105 nautical miles from the Philippines, lies a submerged reef that Filipinos call Ayungin. In most ways it resembles the hundreds of other reefs, islands, rock clusters…