India, Japan, and Australia had a historic trilateral meeting in New Delhi this week, where diplomats from each nation discussed growing concerns over what they characterize as “aggressive” posturing on China’s part.
President Obama’s eagerness to set his Iranian partners-in-peace up with a fully functional economy and functional nuclear weapons is not generating much reciprocal affection from Tehran. Iran’s Fars news agency reports that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s top adviser for foreign affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, declared his country “is keen to build closer military ties with China, welcoming Beijing to expand its naval presence worldwide.”
The Chinese government’s most senior man in Europe has hit back at Western nations criticising China’s island development in the South China Sea, saying they have double standards over the issue. Ambassador Wu Jianmin, who sits on China’s influential Foreign Policy
Philippine President Benigno Aquino, in remarks made Wednesday at a public event, compared China’s incursions into Philippine and Vietnamese land in the South China Sea to Nazi Germany’s push into the Sudetenland, calling for the United States to intervene and keep China out of their sovereign territory before it was too late.
The United States has offered Vietnam $18 million for the purchase of American patrol boats, to be used in self-defense against looming threats from China to Vietnamese and Philippine vessels that dare navigate into the South China Sea. China has both increased its belligerent activity in the disputed region and trumped up calls to condemn its neighbors for “provocative” behavior near the Spratly Islands.
At high noon, on June 1, 1813, U.S. Navy Captain James Lawrence disembarked from Boston Harbor with his frigate, the U.S.S. Chesapeake, to do battle with British Commodore Phillip Broke’s H.M.S. Shannon. At the time, the United States—a burgeoning country just a few decades old—was at war with Great Britain over perceived violations of American rights by the world’s preeminent superpower on the high seas.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter criticized China’s artificial island construction in the South China Sea, declaring that the United States would not be deterred by China’s military activity in the region.
The war of words between the United States and China over disputed islands in the South China Sea intensified over the weekend, with Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter telling an assembly of Asian-Pacific defense officials in Singapore the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about Chinese activity, and the increased risk of “miscalculation or conflict.”
Philippine President Benigno Aquino is set to land in Japan on Tuesday following initial negotiations for new weapons trade deals and closer military ties. Observers see the move as a preventative measure in the face of China’s expanded efforts in disputed South China Sea territory to build military facilities and artificial islands, violating international law.
You may not have noticed, as ISIS expands its reach across Iraq and Russia fuels conflict in Ukraine, but the odds of an armed confrontation between the United States and China just dramatically increased.
Contents: US-China tensions in South China Sea take another step upward; EU rescues 4300 migrants in one day as country quotas are enacted
Contents: Russia using mobile crematoriums to continue pretense about Ukraine; Russia’s economic crisis may force withdrawal from Ukraine; US-China military tensions get rapidly inflamed over South China Sea
In a move that ties into China’s ambition to rebuild the “Silk Road” trade route and assert maritime dominance, the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper mused that war with the United States over disputed South China Sea islands was “inevitable” unless the U.S. backed down.
After months of alarming neighboring Vietnam and the Philippines with illegal constructions in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, the Chinese government announced the construction of two lighthouses in the region, complete with groundbreaking ceremonies. The move indicates China has abandoned any attempt to continue their constructions surreptitiously, particularly in light of American State Department warnings to stay within their sovereign territory.
Contents: Vietnam protests China’s fishing ban in the Gulf of Tonkin; China says war with US in South China Sea is inevitable; China’s military using jamming against US drones in South China Sea; China’s media describes ‘bottom line’ for war with US
Tensions are rising in the South China Sea as American officials have become increasingly vocal regarding their opposition to China’s development of islands over which Vietnam and the Philippines contend China has no sovereignty. In a scathing opinion piece in state media Friday, China has responded by telling American officials to stay out of Asian affairs.
Contents: China’s military confronts US surveillance plane in South China Sea; Claims of ISIS activities in Pakistan doubted by officials; Iran’s Supreme Leader rules out any nuclear inspections
Nusra Front vows to eradicate ISIS in Qalamoun on Syria/Lebanon border; US escalates tensions with plans for patrols, aircraft in South China Sea; Vatican to recognize State of Palestine while canonizing Palestinian nuns
Multiple reports indicate that American military officials are considering sending forces to monitor disputed areas of the South China Sea in an attempt, as Reuters describes it, to “assert freedom of navigation around rapidly growing Chinese-made artificial islands.” The reports arrive less than one week before Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to meet with Chinese leadership in Beijing.
If China’s talk of rebuilding the legendary “Silk Road” trade route is a means of asserting dominance over Asian land and water, it is hardly the only muscle Beijing is flexing. Reuters reports that the Chinese are accusing the Philippines of violating a largely informal code governing the South China Sea by constructing military and civilian facilities on certain disputed islands. The Philippines Foreign Ministry levels the exact same charge against China.
China builds Navy designed to overwhelm the US Navy; Philippine fishermen harassed by China’s ‘cabbage strategy’
Greece’s government will confiscate cash reserves from all public institutions; Greece’s people face the future with anxiety and dread; China speeds up its military takeover of the South China Sea; Vietnam and the Philippines establish a strategic military partnership to counter China
U.S.-China diplomacy over South China Sea turns vitriolic; 400 die as illegal migrants flood into Italy from Libya; Illegal immigration from Mexico down sharply, but not for lack of trying
Uber’s largest rival in Southeast Asia, GrabTaxi, has reportedly announced the launch of an R&D center in Singapore this week. The move marks the latest battle in the global expansion of ride-sharing turf wars as companies seek to draw talent from overseas.
China’s South China Sea building spree threatens neighbors; US Navy says that China now has more attack submarines than US
