LANGKAWI, Malaysia: Reclamation works in the disputed South China Sea, where China has constructed an airstrip and other structures on coral reefs, threaten to “undermine peace, security and stability” in the region, Southeast Asian leaders warned on Monday. Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over almost all the sea–also claimed in parts by several other Asian nations–has […]
Let’s assume 2015 is the year that Taiwan’s government normally friendly to Beijing starts resisting China instead. President Ma Ying-jeou’s Nationalist Party needs some anti-Communist credits for a shot at the presidency next year after disruptive mass protests and surprising local election losses in 2014. As if to kick off that campaign, Taiwan hoisted its […]
BEIJING: China on Monday hit back at the Philippines for criticizing Beijing’s ongoing reclamation project in the disputed South China Sea, saying that its actions were within the scope of Chinese sovereignty. China lays claim to almost all of the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich with minerals and oil-and-gas deposits. Brunei, Malaysia, […]
A couple of weeks ago, IHS Jane’s, a leading British publishing company specializing in military topics, reported that China was reclaiming land at Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea and transforming permanently submerged features that do not qualify as an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea into […]
The United States has urged Beijing to stop its reclamation projects in the South China Sea, as a report provided more details on a massive island being built in the disputed waters. According to a report by IHS Jane’s Defence, China had over the past three months used dredgers to build an island about 3,000 […]
The South China Sea is a powder keg of territorial claims mixed with oil and gas resources. Almost every country in the area has a longstanding animus toward at least one of its neighbors. China claims 90% of the Sea, and Beijing is viewed with fear and suspicion throughout the region. The U.S. and Chinese […]
The Spratly Islands—not so long ago known primarily as a rich fishing ground—have turned into an international flashpoint as Chinese leaders insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been, in the words of Premier Wen Jiabao, “China’s historical territory since ancient times.” Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime […]