South China Sea - Page 6

China extracted 861,400 cubic meters of natural gas from methane hydrate, known as “flammable ice,” during a one-month trial production in the South China Sea, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.

China established two new “research stations” in the South China Sea on Yongshu [Fiery Cross Reef] and Zhubi [the Subi Reef], Beijing state news agency Xinhua reported this weekend — evidence China is surging forward with its colonization of the South China Sea while the world grapples with the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese state media on Tuesday rather unsubtly decided this would be a good time to chat with a panel of “experts” about the possibility of using an electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP) against American ships that enter portions of the South China Sea illegally claimed by Beijing. The timing suggests it was a bit of saber-rattling by a Communist Party nervous about its power and prestige after the Wuhan virus disaster, but some degree of escalation in the South China Sea has long been a concern for the U.S. Navy and ships from across the free world.

The U.S. Navy announced on Tuesday that the USS Montgomery, an advanced littoral combat ship, sailed near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Saturday to “assert navigational rights and freedoms consistent with international law.” It was the first Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) of 2020. 

Indonesia on Friday announced it would increase maritime patrols around islands in the South China Sea, a few days after Chinese coast guard vessels “trespassed” near the northern Natuna Islands.

China sailed its newest aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait for the second time on Thursday as it stepped up its claims in the South China Sea, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry has announced.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday attended the commissioning ceremony for the Shandong, China’s second aircraft carrier and the first to be constructed domestically.

Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe vowed at the Xiangshan security forum in Beijing on Monday that “the momentum of China’s reunification cannot be stopped by any individuals or forces.”

The Navy recently sent an aircraft carrier strike group and an amphibious ready group into the South China Sea, apparently for the first time.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has pulled the Hollywood animation movie “Abominable” from theaters for featuring a scene with a map containing the controversial South China Sea nine-dash line, state media reported.

The Disney-owned sports network ESPN aired the Communist Party’s preferred map of China during a broadcast Wednesday morning – a map an international legal tribunal ruled illegal in 2016 that violates the sovereignty of five different countries.

Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), a private equity firm bankrolled by the Chinese government, is weighing how and if it should explain its relationship with Hunter Biden, the youngest son of former Vice President Joe Biden.

Vietnam stood alone warning against China’s belligerence in the South China Sea at the U.N. General Assembly.

Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, has a long and muddled history of profiting from business interests tied to the former vice president’s political influence.

China warned Britain against becoming more active in the South China Sea, saying any deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth near the contested Spratly Islands could be seen as a “hostile action.”

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte backed Beijing’s use of police brutality against protesters Hong Kong on Friday, as mass pro-democracy demonstrations against China’s extradition bill enter their fifth consecutive month. 

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte went to Beijing on Wednesday to discuss his country’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and, at the same time, push for speeding up Chinese projects in the Philippines.

On the eve of a major joint military exercise between the U.S. and Southeast Asian nations, the U.S. State Department accused China of deliberately blocking access to trillions of dollars in oil and natural gas resources that rightly belong to other nations.

Police in Vietnam broke up a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi as protesters campaigned against Beijing’s aggressive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, Reuters reported Tuesday.

A spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Tuesday that the passports of Chinese visitors will soon be stamped with a map of the Philippines, prominently including islands in the South China Sea claimed by both Manila and Beijing.

China’s government media hailed Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte as a “model for cooperation” with China in a column Tuesday responding to Duterte’s annual State of the Nation address, where he adamantly refused to confront China for illegally occupying Philippine territory.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told a celebrity pastor on Wednesday that he was invoking the nation’s Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States to demand the U.S. Navy attack China.

Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippine ambassador to the United States, said on Tuesday the two countries are in discussions to strengthen their 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

Philippine protesters, including some members of the nation’s Congress, surrounded the Chinese consulate in Manila and burned Chinese flags to protest Beijing’s disregard for the 2016 international tribunal ruling finding the Communist Party’s colonization of the South China Sea, which turned three years old Friday.

China is the United States’ main national security challenge for the next 50 to 100 years, the Army general picked to become the top military officer in the United States said during a Senate hearing on Thursday.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte condemned the United States for allegedly “egging” his government into a war with China, daring Washington to attack Beijing and promising only a supporting role for his country, Philippine outlets reported on Sunday.

Japan’s largest warship, the Izumo, completed joint drills with allies including the U.S., France, and Australia this week, demonstrating Japan’s improved ability to project power across the region – pointedly including ground actions on islands like the ones China has been militarizing. China just used those islands to conduct missile tests that a growing list of Asian powers found disturbing, as did the United States.

Chinese forces based on disputed islands in the South China Sea announced over the weekend that an area also claimed by the Philippines would be closed to outside traffic for five days to accommodate a military drill. The U.S. military detected “concerning” tests of anti-ship missiles during the drill.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte responded to lawmakers and assorted pundits who raised the possibility of him facing impeachment for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to fish in Philippine waters on Thursday by threatening to arrest them.

Philippines Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III shocked the nation Thursday by coming out in defense of granting China fishing rights in Philippine sovereign waters in light of a Chinese ship sinking a Filipino fishing vessel and refusing to rescue its crew this month.

Ten of the dozens of Democrats running for U.S. president in the 2020 election appeared nearly evenly split during Wednesday’s debate in citing climate change or the rogue government of China as the biggest geopolitical threat facing the country today. All failed to mention that those threats are largely one and the same.

Philippine news outlets reported Wednesday that an unidentified man attacked a Chinese restaurant in the Manila metropolitan area with a grenade, which did not detonate.

Dozens of angry Philippine protesters urged President Duterte to act more decisively against increasingly common illegal activity by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea on Tuesday, burning Chinese flags in response to the sinking of a Philippine ship last week.

A spokesman for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte suggested Monday that the country could invoke a mutual defense treaty with the United States to involve America in its ongoing dispute with China over a Philippine fishing vessel sunk in a “hit and run” accident in sovereign Philippine territory.

A spokesman for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte described the notoriously foul-mouthed head of state as “very cautious” on Friday after local media began observing that he has not weighed in on what officials called the “barbaric” sinking of a Philippine ship by a presumed Chinese vessel in Philippine territorial waters.

The goverment of the Philippines issued an outraged condemnation Wednesday of a Chinese vessel for sinking a Philippine fishing ship near the Spratly Islands, in sovereign Philippine territory that China illegally claims as its own.