TOKYO – Shinjuku station at rush hour is like a highly organized ant colony, as 3.6-million commuters converge on the world’s busiest transport hub every day. Yet harmony, rather than chaos, reigns in a society that remains a remarkable consensus of politeness, co-operation and affinity. A train that arrives two minutes late is greeted by […]
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has exhausted all bilateral means to find solutions to the West Philippine Sea dispute and could not be accused of provoking China to go into massive reclamation activities, Malacañang said yesterday. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the country has always acted accordingly in addressing the territorial dispute. “We have […]
BEIJING – China’s military on Thursday accused the Philippines of trying to “rope in” other countries to the dispute over ownership of the South China Sea and stir regional tension after Japan joined a military drill with the Philippines. According to Japanese and Philippine officials, a Japanese surveillance aircraft, with three Filipino guest crew members, […]
Since China began reclaiming land in the South China Sea a few months ago using advanced dredging techniques, the Spratly Islands have become a test of wills between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. As WSJ’s Andrew Browne writes, one tiny reef in particular has become a potential flashpoint for U.S.-China ties: […]
China’s Foreign Ministry says a U.S. report is defying the facts and painting an unfair picture of China’s military involvement in the South China Sea. According to a statement released on Sunday, the Chinese think the Americans are hopelessly stuck framing the world in Cold War terms. The U.S. report, released last Friday by the […]
In a remarkable public speech at ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet conference last month, the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet—Admiral Harry B. Harris—criticized China for engaging in an “unprecedented land reclamation” effort, creating a “great wall of sand” in the South China Sea (SCS). He went on to point out: “When one looks at China’s […]
BEIJING – China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it was “extremely concerned” after leaders of Southeast Asian countries expressed worry about land reclamation and navigational freedom in the disputed South China Sea. China’s reclamation work in the South China Sea has become the latest source of tension with some of its smaller neighbours, several […]
BEIJING, China – China on Monday said it opposed the Philippines seeking Southeast Asian unity to denounce its reclamation in the South China Sea, and hoped Washington and Manila, who have been conducting a military exercise in the disputed waters, do more to benefit regional peace and stability. Earlier on Monday, an official said Philippine […]
Unprecedented? Or perhaps even refreshing? For the first time, Beijing has offered a more elaborate clarification about its recent activities in the South China Sea? Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying, in response to a question posed during the ministry press conference on April 9 about Chinese land reclamation around the Meiji Reef […]
Japan used to be aloof from the three-way chess game of conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea. Tokyo was pre-occupied with its own territorial dispute with China over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Daioyu in China. However, quietly encouraged by […]