USA
-
Will Beijing Declare a Special Air Defense Zone Over the South China Sea?
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, B-52 Bombers, China, East China Sea Dispute, Japan, Militarization, Nuclear Submarines, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, USABeijing may replicate the controversial special air defense zone it unilaterally declared over the East China Sea in another disputed region — the vast South China Sea — in a bid to shore up its military strategy that could escalate tensions and intensify U.S.-China rivalry, experts say. The controversial East China Sea air defense identification […]
-
China sends fighter jets to patrol new air defense zone
BEIJING — The Chinese air force sent its mainstay Su-30 and J-11 fighters and an early-warning aircraft to patrol its air defense identification zone on Thursday, an air force spokesman told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The spokesman said the air force “will make patrol flights within the zone standard practice,” but did not clarify whether […]
-
Beijing’s grand vision of a blue-water Chinese lake
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, Air Sweeps, China, East China Sea, Japan, Militarization, Naval Patrols, USATOKYO — China’s assertive demarcation of the airspace over the East China Sea hints at an ambitious yet risky long-term strategy of maritime control. “I thought this would happen one day, but never that they would go ahead so soon,” said a Japanese national security source after China declared its new air defense identification zone last Saturday. Chinese national […]
-
How China can cement its territorial claims in the South China Sea
China has painted itself into a diplomatic and legal corner regarding its claims in the South China Sea. Its infamous and ambiguous “historic” nine-dash line has been variously interpreted by rival claimants as a national boundary; a sovereignty claim to all water and land within it; and, more optimistically, as an indicator of a sovereignty […]
-
PH Sea, Luzon Strait key to China nuke ambitions
DESPITE notable progress over the past few years, the sea-based leg of the Chinese nuclear triad will remain significantly constrained by geographical and technological factors. In the last weeks of October the Chinese media provided unprecedented coverage of the shadowy Chinese nuclear submarine force. During a slew of media reports and interviews, numerous Chinese military […]
-
Chinese nuclear submarines capable of widespread attack on U.S.
Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time that Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack American cities to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific. Leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the “awesomeness” of […]
-
Philippines Takes China’s Sea Claims to Court
Paul Reichler, a Washington-based lawyer, has spent much of his career representing small countries against big ones: Nicaragua versus the U.S.; Georgia versus Russia; Mauritius versus the U.K., Bangladesh versus India. His first big victory made headlines in the 1980s when the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that U.S. support for Contra […]
-
Philippines South China Sea legal case against China gathers pace
ASEAN, Brunei, China, Code of Conduct, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nine Dash Line, Philippines, Russia, South China Sea Dispute, South Korea, UNCLOS, USA, Vietnam(Reuters) – The Philippines’ legal challenge against China’s claims in the South China Sea is gathering pace, emerging as a “proxy battle” over Beijing’s territorial reach. Manila has assembled a crack international legal team to fight its unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea – ignoring growing pressure […]
-
A Code of Conduct for the South China Sea?
A series of high-level ASEAN meetings culminated in Suzhou, China on September 15, when senior officials from the forum for the first time met to formally discuss the possibility of a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea. According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting ended positively, with an agreement […]
-
Chinese Foot-Dragging
If there is ever going to be an end to tensions over the South China Sea, one of the world’s most strategically important waterways, countries in the region need to find a way to work out their volatile maritime disputes. China, more than any other nation, has fanned those hostilities with sweeping sovereignty claims and […]