South China Sea

The Philippine government announced on Monday that it will take legal action against China for harvesting giant clams at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

The Philippine Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that a swarm of hundreds of Chinese fishing boats around a South China Sea island claimed by Manila is a clear violation of the sovereign territory of the Philippines.

The Trump administration delivered six patrol boats worth $12 million to Vietnam’s Coast Guard, the American embassy in Hanoi announced on Monday, saying the move represents the “deepening cooperation” in law enforcement and humanitarian efforts between the former enemies.

Former  Philippine officials Albert del Rosario and Conchita Carpio Morales announced on Thursday they have filed a human rights complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Chinese President Xi Jinping over his government’s actions in the South China Sea.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is speaking out about Italy’s reported willingness to sign onto the People’s Republic of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, telling Breitbart News that reports of the Italians’ openness to joining the Communist Party of China program is “stunningly naive.”

The United States flew a B-52 Stratofortress over the contested South China Sea on Tuesday, as China continues to aggressively pursue its territorial claims in the region.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has committed to helping the Philippines defend its territory in the South China Sea, as China continues to aggressively pursue its own claims to territory.

The Chinese military this week concluded a month of unannounced exercises in the South China Sea and the Pacific aimed at testing its “wartime command system” and enhancing its missile defenses, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) revealed on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, DC — China’s “massive effort to grow and modernize” the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is “eroding” the United States’ “relative competitive military advantage” in the Indo-Pacific region, the top American commander in the area warned on Tuesday, stressing that Beijing’s communist leaders are sensing “weaknesses.”

China’s Foreign Ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction” on Monday after two U.S. warships sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP).

General Li Zuocheng of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) echoed the sentiments of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in remarks Tuesday urging America not to retain ties to Taiwan and that any attempt to protect it from Chinese invasion would be met with military force.

The U.S. military’s chief of naval operations traveled to Beijing on Sunday for a four-day visit focused on “results-oriented, risk-reduction” talks between the Chinese and American armed forces amid the growing geopolitical and military rivalry between two nations, the United States Navy revealed in a statement Monday.

China responded to the latest U.S. Navy freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea by declaring it would “take necessary actions to protect state sovereignty” and touting its deployment of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles as a step toward doing so. Chinese state media pointedly described the missiles as “ship-killers.”

The destroyer USS McCampbell conducted a Freedom of Navigation Patrol (FONOP) on Monday that brought it within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

Contents: Britain may establish a military base in South China Sea after Brexit; US State Dept issues elevated travel warning for China

China’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Tuesday announced an initiative to repair damage to coral reefs inflicted by its dubiously legal development of disputed islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly chain.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Friday his government will protect its interests in the South China Sea – or, as Manila prefers, the West Philippine Sea – despite Chinese aggression in the region, promising that Philippine ships would continue to patrol the area and troops will continue to be stationed in the Spratly Islands.

The government of Indonesia inaugurated a military base in the Natuna Islands on Tuesday, in the South China Sea and near disputed territory that China has increasingly colonized using the manufacture of artificial islands and illegal coast guard patrols.

The Japanese government announced on Tuesday that it will deploy aircraft carriers for the first time since World War II as part of a defense strategy that will involve purchasing a great deal of American military hardware, a course of action U.S. President Donald Trump has strongly urged.

China has flooded parts of the Philippines with “fishing vessels” that in reality serve as parts of a sprawling paramilitary intended to give Beijing control of the entire South China Sea, the Philippine Star reported on Monday.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has greatly increased its presence in the Taiwan Strait, part of the greater South China Sea, in response to the growing number of freedom of navigation operations by the U.S. Navy, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

The Chinese state publication China Daily announced the beginning of construction on Wednesday of what it referred to as “a complex of facilities for research” on Hainan island in the South China Sea intended to conserve the “historical heritage in the South China Sea.”

Russia alarmed the world on Sunday by reportedly seizing Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov, attacking Ukrainian assets and blocking some of its most important port cities through its illegal command of the Crimean peninsula.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte blocked the military from enforcing a 2016 ruling declaring China’s presence in Philippine waters illegal, the nation’s Defense Secretary told reporters on Friday.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, a friendship visit widely interpreted as an easing of tensions between the U.S. and China just a few weeks after the Chinese refused to allow a U.S. warship to dock in Hong Kong.

A study published Tuesday revealed satellite photos of a “modest” new Chinese structure of unknown use in the Paracel Islands of the South China Sea, signs that China has continued to construct facilities in the region despite an international court ruling finding the development illegal.

A poll released Tuesday by the Philippine firm Social Weather Systems (SWS) found that 84 percent of respondents nationwide believed it was “not right” for President Rodrigo Duterte to refuse to challenge China over its ongoing colonization of Philippine territory in the South China Sea.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed 29 deals with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday during the latter’s visit to Manila that grant China greater access to Philippine territorial waters and bind the Philippines to China’s expansive Belt and Road infrastructure project.

On Tuesday, China’s president Xi Jinping visited Philippines president Rodrigo R. Duterte to sign 29 agreements. The agreements give China permission to drill for oil and gas in the Philippines territorial waters.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping received a frigid welcome in the Philippines on Tuesday as hundreds of protesters circled the Chinese embassy in Manila and others took to attacking Xi on social media for launching a colonization campaign in Philippine territories of the South China Sea.