China
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A “Weak” America is Making Asia Uneasy
Chinese actions in maritime Asia are raising questions about American willingness and ability to act decisively in the region. That ambiguity is bad news for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), traditionally dependent on the U.S. security umbrella and more recently enjoying rapid expansion of trade with China. Chinese perceptions of American […]
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Asean-China looks for common grounds
Next Monday the senior officials from Asean and China will be meeting in Pattaya after they met last September at Suzhou, China where they kicked off official consultation on the process of formulating code of conducts (CoC) for the South China Sea. It was a turning point as China expressed the readiness to engage Asean […]
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Is Indonesia shifting its South China Sea policy?
A Jakarta think-tank intellectual was once asked whether Beijing listens when Jakarta speaks. He responded emphatically: ‘Oh yes! The problem is we don’t say enough’. In the post-authoritarian era, Indonesian officials, like many of their Southeast Asian counterparts, have tended to self-censor when it comes to China, avoiding public criticism while benefiting from considerable Chinese […]
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China’s President Xi urges greater military use of space
(Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the air force to adopt an integrated air and space defence capability, in what state media on Tuesday called a response to the increasing military use of space by the United States and others. While Beijing insists its space programme is for peaceful purposes, a Pentagon report last […]
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Is China Ready to Repair Ties With Japan?
Over at the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, M. Taylor Fravel and Alastair Iain Johnston performed a data analysis on the frequency of Chinese coast guard patrols near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. They found that since October 2013 there has been a remarkable drop in the frequency of Chinese patrols in the Senkaku/Diaoyu territorial waters, […]
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Are U.S. Security Forces a Threat to Philippine Sovereignty? A Call for Principled Statesmanship
Philippine undersecretary of defense Lorenzo Batino said April 11 that negotiators had reached “consensus on key points” of a new deal to allow a greater U.S. rotational military presence in the Philippines. But this raises a dilemma for Philippine lawmakers attempting to define and craft “an independent and nationalistic” foreign policy. At what point should […]
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Comment: Why Beijing should let international law reign in the South China Sea
The perilous churn in the South China Sea, dubbed “Asia’s Cauldron” by one leading strategic analyst, stems from the overlapping claims of six states – Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam – over a body of water vital to global trade, which contains energy resources and abundant fish stock in its vast depths. Negotiations […]
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Does the US Have ‘Trump Cards’ Over China?
China, Diplomatic Relations, East China Sea, Economy, Foreign Policy, South China Sea Dispute, Trade, USAAlthough the war bugle has yet to be sounded, the increasingly confrontational tensions between China and the U.S. over a series of regional issues seem to indicate that both sides are trying to test the other’s red lines. Each side hopes to be able to lay significant strategic weights or threats on the other side […]
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US-Philippines deal won’t stop China in disputed sea – analyst
MANILA, Philippines — The new defense cooperation agreement between the Philippines and the United States will not deter China from conducting activities in the West Philippine Sea, an international security analyst said. Rommel Banlaoi, chief of the Center for Intelligence and National Security Studies, said in a phone interview with Philstar.com on Tuesday that China […]
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Solons support backdoor talks to help resolve PH-China row
Lawmakers are seeing backdoor negotiations as among the “effective” peaceful strategies that could be employed to help resolve the long-standing dispute between Manila and Beijing over the West Philippine Sea. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Deputy Speaker and Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao and AKO Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe said “behind-the-scenes negotiations” could ease the tension […]