Although the historic nature of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbor this week is stressed by both American and Japanese officials, he is not actually the first Prime Minister of Japan to make such a visit.
The government of Japan has just drafted a record-breaking 5.13 trillion yen ($43.5 billion) defense budget plan, aimed at protecting its territory from Chinese military belligerence in the East China Sea and preparing for any instability in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.
China has agreed to invest 100 million yuan — more than $14 million — in new equipment for the Philippine police to be used in President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing campaign against drug crime.
Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney and SiriusXM host Alex Marlow delved into this week’s terror attacks in Berlin and Ankara on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.
“After friendly consultations between China and the United States, the transfer of the US underwater drone was smoothly completed in relevant waters in the South China Sea at midday on 20 December,” the Chinese Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday, referring to the device it seized about 50 miles from Subic Bay in the Philippines last week.
Chinese state-run propaganda publications are casting doubt on Beijing’s promise to return a stolen U.S. underwater drone in an “appropriate” manner, claiming that the drone may carry “valuable information” that China may not return with the hardware.
Contents: China says it will back down over US military drone seizure in South China Sea; Chinese bombers circling Taiwan raise talk of war during Trump’s first term
The Chinese government has reportedly seized an American Navy vessel navigating the international waters in the South China Sea.
The Chinese government appears to have accelerated its development of military assets in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, a territory claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
U.S. Pacific Command head Admiral Harry Harris vowed to prevent China from “closing down” the South China Sea in a speech on Wednesday, confirming that Australia would allow the U.S. to fly fighter planes out of its territory to help keep the region free.
In a television interview over the weekend, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said there was “serious concern” in Beijing about President-elect Donald Trump’s policy toward Taiwan.
With main objector Philippines placated, Vietnam is taking the mantle of opposition to China’s colonization of the South China Sea, with a new report indicating that it has begun dredging land in the Spratly Island chain.
Contents: Philippines to reject US use of its bases for South China Sea patrols; China says its South China Sea military buildup is a boon to the world; Vietnam and Australia reject China’s claims
The Chinese government appears to be adopting a two-sided diplomatic approach to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, with President Xi Jinping and his Foreign Ministry issuing moderated, friendly comments about Trump. China’s propaganda newspapers, however, seethe at the President-elect’s defiant moves against the Asian power.
Contents: No war erupted from Trump’s ten minute phone call with Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen; From the Truman Doctrine to renewed nationalism
Vietnam has invested in an expanded airplane runway in the Spratly Islands, a disputed chain in the South China Sea, that would grant it greater flexibility in defending its assets in the region from an increasingly belligerent China.
Chinese state media has deemed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s meeting with President-elect Donald Trump a failure while warning Tokyo not to feel emboldened by the alliance in the South China Sea, a sign that Trump’s decision to grant Abe his first one-on-one visit with a foreign head of state has rattled Beijing.
South Korea coast guard agents used machine guns to chase Chinese ships illegally fishing in Korean waters back towards China this week, prompting a stern statement from Beijing’s Foreign Ministry expressing extreme disappointment in Korea’s refusal to permit this illegal behavior.
In a move that may jeopardize his hard-earned political capital with China, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte expressed a willingness to engage in joint military exercises with Japan during his trip to Tokyo this week. His remarks follow repeated demands that the U.S. vacate its military posts throughout the Philippines.
The United States and communist Vietnam are committed to the rule of law in the disputed South China Sea, announced U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as longstanding U.S. ally in the region, the Philippines, is strengthening its ties with communist China.
The United States exercised a “freedom of navigation” operation in the South China Sea this weekend, once again challenging China’s growing colonization of international waters in the region.
Contents: Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte in comic dance with China; Duterte’s statement generates backlash at home; Philippines president Duterte apparently cedes Scarborough Shoal to China
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said “goodbye” to ties with the United States while in Beijing this week, leaving both Washington and much of the world “baffled,” according to the State Department, as Duterte offered no explanation regarding what that goodbye actually means.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is currently in Beijing, where he declared that “America has lost” the alliance with Manila and that he will work to strengthen ties with China, a nation that has usurped large swaths of Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio warned President Rodrigo Duterte that he may face impeachment if he does not properly protect Philippine territory from Chinese colonization, particularly the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
In a private speech shortly after leaving her post as Secretary of State, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly asserted that China has “a right to assert themselves” with regard to the South China Sea, a region in which the communist government has usurped the sovereign territory of six countries.
Pakistan and the Philippines have threatened to break ties with the United States and forge a closer relationship with Russia and China, accusing America of ignoring their concerns.
A spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry has warned the Japanese government to abandon its plans to seek a greater role in freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea, suggesting that Japan’s interest is “playing with fire” and that China’s military is prepared to subdue any challengers in the region.
In discussing his push to meet Chinese and Russian officials to attract investment, Duterte noted that he was preparing to “cross the Rubicon” with the United States. He did not elaborate on what he meant, though many have interpreted this as an indication Duterte is looking to weaken ties with his nation’s most reliable ally.
The Chinese military conducted what it called a “routine” control that sent Japanese jets scrambling Sunday over the East China Sea, with Japan warning that they are keeping an eye on the increasingly “expansive” activities of China’s military assets.
Photos taken from Google Maps appear to show military structures, including anti-aircraft fortifications, appearing on the Taiwan-controlled island of Taiping, in the disputed Spratly Islands chain of the South China Sea.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was notably silent on the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea, instead demanding “developed countries” conform to climate change protocols and asserting “terrorism should not be linked with certain countries, races, or religions.”
Japan’s defense minister announced in Washington Thursday that the nation is seeking to participate in joint maritime exercises with the United States in the South China Sea, a direct challenge to China’s repeated demands for Japan to stay out of the region.
Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay addressed concerns that the nation’s new president, Rodrigo Duterte, is damaging Manila’s relations with the United States, arguing that America is an “esteemed and trusted ally” but that the Philippines cannot “forever be” America’s “little brown brother.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping boasted of a closer, more robust bilateral relationship with Russia Wednesday, remarking that he and counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed to “strengthen mutual support on major issues” as the two nations engage in military exercises in the South China Sea.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte admitted Monday that he had skipped important meetings at the recent Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) summit because President Barack Obama would be there, and “I do not like the Americans.”
China and Russia have begun joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, set to involve “live-fire drills, sea crossing and island landing operations, and island defense and offense exercises,” according to a Chinese navy spokesperson quoted by CNN.
A day after requesting U.S. troops leave the south of the country, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte hinted at interest in buying weapons from rivals China and Russia and rejected the idea of joint naval patrols in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
Contents: Two million Muslims — but no Iranians — begin the Hajj pilgrimage on Friday; Saudi Arabia makes a dangerous accusation – that Iranians are ‘not Muslims’; Obama warns China not to ignore the Hague tribunal ruling on South China Sea
The fallout from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s very public insults towards President Barack Obama continues. Russia, previously silent on China’s creeping invasion of Philippine territory in the South China Sea, has now issued a statement supporting Beijing.
