Philippines
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Should Asia be Afraid? China’s Strategy in the South China Sea Emerges
China continues to play a long game in asserting its territorial claims and hegemonic ambitions in the South China Sea (SCS). After its confrontation with Vietnam over the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig in May this year, Beijing has recently announced that it intends to build lighthouses on five islands in the SCS, two of which appear to be in…
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Freedom of Navigation and China: What Should Europe Do?
Analysis, China, EEZ, Foreign Relations, Japan, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, UNCLOS, USA, VietnamEurope should take note of the challenge that China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi set the United States at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting earlier this month. In remarks to the press, Wang challenged Washington’s advocacy of high seas freedoms by arguing that the “current situation of the South China Sea is generally stable, and the freedom of navigation there has…
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China’s Crafty South China Sea Gambit
In a recent piece for China US Focus, Zhai Kun, director of the Institute of World Political Studies at CICIR, described the South China Sea as “a chessboard of international politics.” Noting the sea’s fluctuating role in relations between China and its neighbours, Zhai then claimed that the current focus on the South China Sea (SCS) followed a July 2010…
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Beijing hints it may stop activities in South China Sea if Manila drops arbitration
NAYPYIDAW — China would be willing to halt its activities in disputed areas in the South China Sea if the Philippines backs out of international arbitration it initiated last year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario proposed at a regional security summit here what he termed a “triple-action plan” in a bid…
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Beijing hints it may stop activities in South China Sea if Manila drops arbitration
NAYPYIDAW — China would be willing to halt its activities in disputed areas in the South China Sea if the Philippines backs out of international arbitration it initiated last year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario proposed at a regional security summit here what he termed a “triple-action plan” in a bid…
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China Rejects Philippine Proposal on South China Sea Disputes
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar—China on Saturday rejected the Philippines’ proposed freeze on perceived provocative acts that recently stirred tensions in contested Asian waters, signaling its preference to tackle South China Sea disputes with diplomatic efforts that have made little progress in the last decade. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-rejects-philippine-proposal-on-south-china-sea-disputes-1407574262?tesla=y
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China to build lighthouses on five islands in South China Sea
BEIJING: China plans to build a lighthouse each on five islands in the disputed South China Sea after it had completed the site surveys for the construction. According to state-run China News Service today, the islands are North Reef, Antelope Reef, Drummond Island, South Sand and Pyramid Rock. Drummond Island and Pyramid Rock are located in the disputed Paracel Islands,…
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China keeps changing excuses for sea claim
Austronesian, China, History, Justice Antonio T. Carpio, Nine Dash Line, Philippines, South China Sea DisputeAncient Malays had crossed the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific millenniums before China started mapping its surrounding waters. With that fact, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio prefaced a lecture last June at De La Salle University on China’s false historical claims over the South China Sea. “Historical Facts, Lies, and Rights” reviews Filipinos on their ancestors’…
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Behind the vague cow-tongue line established by China
General Daniel Schaeffer, former French military attaché to China, Thailand and Vietnam said that the new map was an unreal curtain to hide the truth inside. What is that truth? Gen. Daniel Schaeffer said that before 2009, the Chinese government had never officially referred to the cow tongue line as the impregnable boundary of Chinese sovereignty in the East Sea.…
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Strategic withdrawal: China’s naval policy and the HY SY-981 fiasco
The South China Sea dispute is a contentious issue in the Asia-Pacific region characterised by periodic escalations of tensions, sabre rattling, and often armed conflict. The most recent escalation of tensions occurred as a result of the China National Petroleum Company’s (CNPC) unilateral decision to drill two exploratory oil wells in waters contested by Vietnam starting early May and projected…