WASHINGTON— The nominee to become the top US diplomat in East Asia delivered pointed comments about China in his confirmation hearing Thursday, saying there’s no place for “coercion and bullying” in the region’s seas. Danny Russel told a Senate panel that he will do everything in his power to “lower the temperature” in territorial disputes […]
While the world focuses on rising tension between China and the Philippines and other claimants in the South China Sea, Beijing and Delhi are also engaged in a quiet struggle in the contested waters. By putting up for international bidding the same oil block that India had obtained from Vietnam for exploration, China has thrown […]
(Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping told his visiting Vietnamese counterpart of Wednesday that maintaining peace and stability in the contested South China Sea was vital for both countries, who should remember their traditional friendship. Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over a vast stretch of the South China Sea has set it directly against Vietnam and […]
China’s three-week border stand-off during April in Ladakh, in Indian-administered Kashmir, had misfired, an Indian security expert told a forum in Manila, saying Beijing’s move galvanised Indian leaders into finally sealing an historic security deal with Japan. The dispute strained ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours, but both sides pulled troops back ahead of a visit […]
Amid its continuing territorial dispute with its neighbors in South East Asia, China has updated its old map by including 130 islands and islets in the South China Sea. Sinomaps Press chief editor Xu Gencai told Xinhua News Agency on Saturday that Beijing decided to come with a new official map to inform Chinese nationals […]
The Chinese are taught from grade school that the entire South China Sea is theirs. Textbooks carry an “ancient map” with nine dashes in a U-shape denoting the outer limits of the sea, skirting the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, some islands of Indonesia, and Vietnam. Thirteenth-century-old, the Chinese map purportedly proves that “we were there first.” […]
News reporters, sometimes, incompletely report or misinterpret statements by people they cover resulting in confusion or making their subject look like bearers of bad news. As I was reading back issues of the Standard Today, after my return from a trip abroad, a news article on May 24 caught my eye. It was titled “Bringing […]
In a bid to keep China in check, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera is making final arrangements to visit the Philippines and Hawaii from later this month, a government source said. During his trip to Manila from June 26 and Hawaii on July 1, Onodera will stress the need to ensure maritime safety based on the […]
President Yanai gave his annual address to the twenty-third Meeting of the 165 States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on 10 June 2013. He informed the delegates that the Tribunal had worked over the last year on four complex cases related to a variety of issues, encompassing maritime […]
MANILA, Philippines – About 18 Chinese vessels are intruding into Philippine territory, raising the need to pour more resources to defense spending, a security official said Thursday. Vicente Agdamag, Deputy Director-General of the National Security Council Secretariat, said the deployment of the ships is in line with China’s aim to consolidate its control over the […]