China’s longstanding campaign to redefine water as territory—territory where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) fiat is law—proceeds apace. Lovers of maritime freedom must reject this campaign in all its forms. In other words, all nations that use the world’s oceans and seas to transact diplomacy, trade and commerce, and martial enterprises must rally against it. […]
THE Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the China Coast Guard (CCG) have agreed to further strengthen the two countries’ maritime cooperation amid territorial disputes in the South China Sea. In its official website, the PCG said both sides have agreed to cooperate in the sectors of preventing and combating drug trafficking and other transnational crimes; […]
Satellite imagery appears to confirm that China has nearly completed construction of new fortification that could be used to house advanced surface-to-air missiles batteries such as the HQ-9. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, the fortifications are being built on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi Reefs. “Eight […]
WASHINGTON — China is almost finished building military structures on its artificial islands in the South China Sea (SCS), Reuters reports, in a development that is sure to test the new Trump administration. Unnamed U.S. officials told the news service construction is almost complete on nearly two dozen structures with retractable roofs designed to house […]
As China flexes its military muscle in the South China Sea, the U.S. is responding with its own show of force that includes ships, fighter jets and submarines, as well as the test launch of nuclear-capable missiles. According to internal military reports reviewed by NBC News, almost every week brings another display of U.S. hardware […]
New satellite photography from the South China Sea confirms a nightmare for the US and champions of free navigation everywhere — Beijing has reinforced surface-to-air missiles sites in the Spratly Islands. For years now, China has been building artificial islands in the South China Sea and militarizing them with radar outposts and missiles. The latest […]
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Recent satellite imagery appears to show China is completing structures intended to house surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) on a series of artificial islands in the South China Sea, a Washington think-tank said Thursday. According to images published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, the structures are being installed on Fiery Cross Reef, Mischief Reef […]
All eyes on Taiwan, America’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ China has once again raised the stakes in one of the world’s most fiercely contested waterways — this time, for the first time, on Donald Trump’s presidential watch. New satellite photos have revealed that China is building surface-to-air missile (SAM) facilities on Subi, Mischief, and Fiery Cross […]
China is getting noisier and noisier in the South China Sea, sending warnings to every nation that challenges its ambitious agenda—to write the navigation rules for the world’ busiest sea trade route. Like a warning Beijing sent to Taiwan and the US last December in the form of a naval force demonstration, as a group […]
THE PRIMER is an initiative of independent researchers. The facts and analyses presented herein represent the authors’ own appreciation of published material and primary sources that were accessible to them during the course of the research. They do not represent any position of the government of the Republic of the Philippines, unless stated otherwise, nor […]