U.S. and Philippine pilots launched a joint training exercise called Cope Thunder on Monday, flying together for the first time in over 30 years as a Cold War-era bilateral fighter training program was renewed in the face of Chinese aggression.
Alleged assessments by Pentagon experts exposed in what authorities believe to be a leak by a young National Guard reservist claim that the U.S. military is struggling to monitor Chinese military activity around Taiwan, the Washington Post reported this weekend, because Beijing is using “civilian” ferries for military purposes.
China’s state-run Global Times on Monday argued that China’s menacing combat exercises over the weekend — including a simulated rocket attack on Taiwan that would cause massive civilian casualties if conducted for real — would have a “profound impact on the progress of national reunification.”
Four additional military bases in the Philippines were opened up to U.S. troops on Monday, with one site near the increasingly contested South China Sea and another bordering Taiwan.
China’s regime-controlled news outlet condemned conservative Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Monday for daring to visit India while China’s dictator Xi Jinping began a trip to Russia, accusing Kishida of pursuing ambitions “too big for his boots” and lamenting that Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were siphoning media attempt away from Moscow.
The EU wants to step up its naval visits and possibly engage in joint military training exercises in the disputed South China Sea.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who assumed the post only two months ago, held his first annual press conference on Tuesday at the “Two Sessions” of China’s rubber-stamp legislature and policy advisory committee.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps began conducting “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea on Saturday, five days after a Chinese ship fired a military-grade laser at an unarmed Philippine supply ship, temporarily blinding its crew.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Monday accused a Chinese ship of attacking a Philippine ship called BRP Malapascua with a powerful laser during a resupply mission, temporary blinding some of the crew.
After initially denying any knowledge of the huge spy balloon floating over Montana, the Chinese government on Friday claimed it was a “civilian” aircraft intended for “meteorological research” that was blown off course into American airspace.
Philippine Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez announced on Thursday that American forces will be granted more extensive access to Philippine military bases, adding four sites to the five already available to the U.S. for training, equipment storage, and infrastructure upgrades.
The Chinese government newspaper Global Times celebrated radical leftist New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as a “politician who truly understands international politics” on Thursday, following her announcement she would resign next month.
The Supreme Court of the Philippines invalidated a 2005 agreement on Tuesday between the Philippines, Vietnam, and China that would have allowed a Chinese government corporation to explore for oil in Filipino waters, unconstitutionally exploiting the country’s national resources.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., often referred to by his nickname “Bongbong,” made his first visit in office to China this week, holding meetings with dictator Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) on Thursday revealed that a Chinese fighter pilot performed a highly unsafe interception maneuver against a U.S. Air Force RC-135 over the South China Sea on December 21. The Chinese jet came within 20 feet of the RC-135’s nose during the maneuver, forcing the American crew to take evasive action.
Bloomberg News on Wednesday quoted a group of Western officials who accused China of creating more artificial islands in the South China Sea, specifically in the disputed Spratly archipelago, in what looks like the first stage of an audacious new land grab.
Vietnam is reportedly stepping up its island reclamation projects in contested South China Sea waters and considering bids for helicopters and drones from U.S. defense manufacturers, signs that Hanoi might be getting serious about pressing its territorial claims against China.
Vice President Kamala Harris said during her first official visit to the Philippines on Monday that the United States will honor a 1951 bilateral defense treaty and defend Filipino ships against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
The local government of Xiamen, China, recently ordered municipal workers to test both fishermen and their catch, including “live fish” and crabs, for the Chinese coronavirus out of alleged concern that international fishing activity in the area may have sparked local outbreaks of the virus, the Chinese government-controlled news outlet Sixth Tone on Thursday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and a delegation of five other U.S. lawmakers met with Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Gsien Loong, and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday, the first stop on a tour of the Indo-Pacific region that could bring Pelosi to Taiwan.
India signed a defense pact with Vietnam on Wednesday, pledging to “significantly increase the scope and scale” of their military coordination over the coming decade.
China on Wednesday hailed its “iron-clad partnership” with Cambodia and broke ground on a joint project to expand the Ream Naval Base.
A Chinese fighter jet challenged an Australian reconnaissance plane last month over the South China Sea, flying close by before releasing flares and bundles of chaff that entered at least one of its target’s engines causing a return to base.
China’s military deployed its “most powerful bombers” to conduct drills near Taiwan on Wednesday just 48 hours before U.S. President Joe Biden embarked on a six-day East Asia tour on Friday in what observers believe may have been a show of defiance against Washington’s support of Taipei’s sovereignty, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Thursday.
Recent satellite images appear to suggest that China’s military has been practicing missile strikes on mock-ups of ships and targets resembling those operated by the Taiwanese and U.S. militaries in Taiwan and in the U.S. territory of Guam, respectively, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday.
China’s military on Friday staged its second-largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) this year, ordering 18 warplanes to fly through the special zone, the Taipei Times reported on Saturday.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently began deploying its most powerful stealth fighter jet, the J-20, to patrol the disputed East China Sea and South China Sea as part of “routine training sessions,” China’s state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday.
U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John C. Aquilino told the Associated Press in an interview published on Sunday that China had fully militarized three artificial islands built in the territory of the Philippines as part of “the largest military buildup since World War II.”
The Philippine Foreign Ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Manila on Monday over the “illegal intrusion and lingering presence” of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel in Philippine waters near the Sulu Sea over a three-day period from January 29 through February 1.
Vietnam has banned a new Hollywood film starring Tom Holland over scenes with a map showing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.
The Navy recovered an F-35C Lightning II jet from the South China Sea that crashed on the USS Carl Vinson and landed in the water in January.
Leaked video shows an F-35C Lightning II crash on an aircraft carrier and plunge into the South China Sea, a Navy spokesman confirmed Monday.
The U.S. Navy was moving swiftly on Wednesday to begin full recovery operations of an F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter lost overboard after a “landing mishap” on the deck of USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Navy lost a F35C Lightning II combat jet Monday after it crash landed while conducting routine flight operations in the South China Sea.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) sent a fleet of 39 aircraft into the southwest corner of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Sunday, Taiwan News reported, noting that the incursion marked the highest number of PLAAF planes to enter Taiwan’s ADIZ in a single day since October 2021.
Philippine Sen. Manny Pacquiao would “assert” Manila’s territorial rights in the South China Sea before the United Nations (U.N.) if elected president of the Philippines in 2022, Pacquiao’s vice-presidential running mate, Lito Atienza, told reporters on Monday.
Three Chinese Coast Guard vessels on Tuesday blocked two Philippines Navy boats from supplying materials to Philippine sailors stationed at a maritime outpost on Ayungin Shoal, an atoll located within Manila’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, the Philippine Star reported Thursday.
Philippine senator and retired boxing legend Manny Pacquiao vowed Thursday to ensure that China does not “abuse” or “bully” the Philippines if he is elected president of the country next year, the Philippine Star reported Friday.
Viewers in the Philippines reported on Monday that they could no longer access at least two episodes of the Australian TV series Pine Gap after Manila demanded Netflix remove them over the depiction of false Chinese territorial claims.
Boxer-turned-politician Manny Pacquiao, who recently retired from the ring to run for the Philippine presidency in 2022, said Thursday he would not allow his country to “be bullied” by Beijing in the South China Sea if elected president, ABS-CBN reported.
