Monthly Archives: July 2020

China’s growing belligerence

What is China doing? In the past few months, Beijing has exploited the U.S.’s and the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to assert China’s hegemony throughout Asia. It has threatened or sunk boats from Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, and Malaysia, and flown fighter jets into Taiwanese airspace eight times. It instigated a skirmish with […]

Scarborough Shoal – a redline

The core issue of the South China Sea dispute is China’s unlawful claim to maritime areas beyond what the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) allows. Under China’s nine-dash line, five Asean coastal states—the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia—will lose large areas of their exclusive economic zones (EEZs) guaranteed to […]

Duterte says he is ‘inutile, cannot do anything’ against China sea aggression

MANILA (UPDATE) – President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he was “inutile” and “cannot do anything” against Beijing’s pursuit of territory and resources in the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Manila. The Philippines should “just cool off” and pursue “diplomatic endeavors” to counter China’s sweeping claims to the area “unless we […]

How the cold war between China and US is intensifying

Tensions between China and the United States have reached the most acute levels since the countries normalized diplomatic relations more than four decades ago, with the U.S. government’s ordering that China close its Houston consulate being just the latest example. In defense, trade, technology, human rights and other categories, actions and reprisals by one side […]

Beijing sends fighter jets to disputed island chain in South China Sea

Beijing has stationed eight warplanes on a strategic disputed island in the South China Sea, escalating tensions over territorial claims. Satellite images from July 15 showed at least four aircraft on Woody Island in the Paracels chain, believed to be J-11B air superiority fighters. More pictures the following day showed them in a different area […]

South China Sea: Australian warships encounter Chinese navy in disputed waters

On July 13, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement contending that China’s claims in the South China Sea are “completely unlawful” and that there is “no coherent legal basis” for its nine-dash line map. This announcement was, of course, strongly opposed by China, which described it as completely unjustified.On July 13, US […]