Military Conflict
-
Asia’s military budgets surge as armies go high-tech
SYDNEY — On two recent occasions, a pair of Sukhoi Su-30 fighters have taken off from their base near the old Indonesian trading port of Makassar and flown far across the Indonesian archipelago to intercept unidentified aircraft. One of the mystery planes, a light aircraft being ferried from Darwin in northern Australia to its new […]
-
SolGen: Sending EDCA to Senate would result in int’l embarrassment for PNoy
Government lawyers on Tuesday maintained that the country’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States is a valid executive agreement that does not need Senate concurrence. In a final effort to defend the EDCA before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, in a 42-page memorandum, said referring the EDCA to the Senate, […]
-
‘Armed clashes in South China Sea possible next year’
WASHINGTON – A military clash between China and one or more Southeast Asian nations involved in territorial disputes in the South China Sea has a 50-50 chance of occurring in 2015, the Council on Foreign Relations said. The Washington-based think tank rated the sea controversy as one of 10 top US conflict prevention priorities in […]
-
Opinion: The Expanding Assault on China’s South China Sea Claims
China’s ambiguous claim to the South China Sea, approximately demarcated by a series of hash marks known as the “nine-dashed line,” faced objections from an expanding number of parties over the past two weeks. While a challenge from the United States came from an unsurprising source, actions by Indonesia and Vietnam were unexpected in their […]
-
Transparency in Troubled Seas
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, China, Diaoyu, East China Sea, Japan, Military Conflict, Philippines, Reclamation, Senkaku, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, Vietnam, Vietnam BridgeOne month ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies launched a new web-based program, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. The premise of this project will be familiar to many of you: maritime competition in Asia has been steadily increasing in recent years, and doing so in an environment of informational opacity. Maritime geography makes it […]
-
China, US navies implement code of conduct
The code, ratified earlier this year, was put into effect as the two navies launched their latest anti-piracy exercise in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday. Analysts said the exercise was an opportunity to put the code into practice and an encouraging indication that both navies want to minimize the risk of misunderstandings. The Chinese […]
-
China ex-general says force an option in ‘Taiwan problem’
BEIJING – An army general has warned that China will not leave the Taiwan problem “unresolved for a long time,” after the island’s Beijing-friendly ruling party suffered a bruising election defeat, a state-run newspaper said. Liu Jingsong told the annual conference of the Global Times newspaper that the Chinese government would not be afraid to […]
-
The South China Sea: Navigating the Most Dangerous Place in the World
Analysis, China, Japan, Malaysia, Military Conflict, Mutual Defense Treaty, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, USA, VietnamWhen people ponder where the next major conflict might erupt, they often look to the South China Sea – the scene of the potentially most explosive, intractable, overlapping sovereignty claims in the world. What can the United States do to find a peaceful solution to tensions between China, the Philippines and Vietnam, and indirectly between […]
-
PLA’s JL-2 missile can reach US mainland: report
China’s JL-2 second-generation intercontinental-range submarine-launched ballistic missile, which has the ability to reach the continental USA, is already believed to be deployable by the People’s Liberation Army, reports Huanqiu, the Chinese-language website of the nationalistic Global Times tabloid. The Julang-2 — literally “Giant Wave 2” — has reached a preliminary level of proficiency, according to […]
-
China building South China Sea island big enough for airstrip – report
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Airstrip, Artificial Islands, China, Fiery Cross Reef, Military Base, Military Conflict, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, SpratlysWASHINGTON – Satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea, a leading defense publication said on Friday. The construction has stoked concern that China may be converting disputed territory in the […]