The long-running Chinese complaint about U.S. activities in the South China Sea, which are proving inconvenient to Chinese activities in that disputed region, runs on through the pages of the state-run Xinhua news agency. Defense Ministry Spokesman Yang Yujun claims China was “greatly concerned about the United States’ push to ‘militarize'” the area.
Philippine Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio announced this week that his court had sufficient evidence to conclude China had destroyed 17 reefs near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and had begun work dredging ten other reefs to build artificial islands in international waters.
Contents: US military says China is lying about its artificial islands; China state TV shows mock military attack on Taiwan; China faces nightmare political scenario with stock market plunge; Turkey-US ‘ISIS-free zone’ in Syria becomes increasingly controversial
The United States flew a Boeing P-8 surveillance plane over the disputed South China Sea on Saturday, a move that a top U.S. Navy admiral called “routine” to the dismay of China. China argues that such activities cause serious damage to U.S.-China relations, reports Reuters.
Contents: Kurds blame Erdogan for ISIS terrorist attack in southeastern Turkey; Philippines reinforces grounded ship to challenge China in South China Sea
The United States moved to reassure its jittery allies in the Asia-Pacific that it has enough firepower to maintain stability in the region that has seen increased Chinese muscle-flexing in recent years.
Venezuelan socialist head of state Nicolás Maduro has recalled his nation’s ambassador to neighboring Guyana after statements by the latter government that Venezuela was excessively intruding into Guyanese maritime territory.
An historic moment in U.S.-Vietnamese relations occurs this week. For the first time ever, the General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party will visit the U.S. and the White House.
The Chinese government recently passed new legislation which will tighten the Communist Party’s hold on the country’s political process, and satellite photographs show the country’s artificial island in the South China Sea is nearly complete.
Under President Obama’s stated policy to fundamentally transform America, our influence on and leadership of the free world has not only been diminished but openly challenged by the likes of China, Russia and Iran. Our unilateral disarmament has only compounded the problem. Furthermore, our allies don’t trust us, and our enemies don’t fear us. That is the worst possible combination.
Japan is considering joining the United States on surveillance flights in the South China Sea, having already participated in one this week with the Philippines. The disputed waters, which China has claimed almost entirely as its own, have seen significant construction on its reefs by the communist power in the past year, angering its neighbors.
The Pentagon deployed a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat ship (LCS) to Asia, knowing weeks in advance that the vessel was vulnerable to a potential enemy attack, according to an unclassified assessment for Congress obtained by Bloomberg News.
Chinese state media outlet the People’s Daily released a report this week claiming that artificial island construction and the usurpation of international waters in the South China Sea would improve “marine meteorological monitoring, warning, forecasting, prediction and scientific research,” and benefit all neighboring countries with claims in the region.
Following protests from Guyana that the socialist Venezuelan government is attempting to usurp international waters for itself, the Colombian government issued a statement this weekend rejecting a Venezuelan decree claiming waters off the coast of Colombia for itself.
Following a bizarre statement that the “reclamation” of South China Sea areas historically not belonging to China is near completion, the Chinese government announced the passing of a new law which would require all private, civilian maritime vessels to be ready for military use “in cases of emergency.” Such a move converts civilian ships into military ships at any time.
Contents: China says it’s finished building artificial islands in South China Sea; China tests hypersonic missile designed to defeat American missile defenses; Greece’s bitter PM Tsipras hurls ultimatums and insults at IMF
The Chinese government announced in an official statement on Tuesday that it would “complete” the usurpation of Philippine, Vietnamese, and territory of other nations in the South China Sea “soon.” No timeline was given, nor were any geographic limits set to the expansion in the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
This article originally appeared at Bloomberg: With five million citizens to protect and billions of investment dollars at stake, China is rethinking its policy of keeping out of other countries’ affairs. China has long made loans conditional on contracts for its
The famous 1972 “Nixon to China” moment, in which President Richard Nixon opened up relations with the Chinese Communists to peel them away from the Soviet Union’s orbit, is often considered a major turning point in the Cold War. Since that time, those who guide U.S. foreign policy have mostly seen China as a long-term partner in a future, global system with America as the first among equals. The American eagle and Chinese dragon would rise together with “constructive engagement.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met a top Chinese general on Thursday and repeated a U.S. call for a halt to land reclamation in the South China Sea while stressing that the Pentagon remained committed to expanding military contacts with China.
An Australian senator who made headlines this week by endorsing the massacre of peaceful protesters by the Chinese government in Tiananmen Square told an Australian media outlet today that he believes China has “valid” claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has been slowly usurping large swaths of Vietnamese and Filipino waters.
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.
