Spratly Islands

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.

Vietnam has banned a new Hollywood film starring Tom Holland over scenes with a map showing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.

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.

Hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels illegally occupying the Philippines’ Spratly Islands are allegedly dumping vast amounts of human waste into the surrounding South China Sea causing an ecological “catastrophe” that threatens the health of local marine ecosystems and fishing stocks, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The top diplomat for the nation of the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr., reportedly urged the country’s Senate on Wednesday to embrace a mutual defense treaty between the nation and the United States to involve the American military in its ongoing territorial conflict with China.

A non-governmental organization called South China Sea Chronicle Initiative (SCSCI) published satellite photos on Wednesday that show China building a surface-to-air missile base near the Vietnamese border.

China launched military drills in four separate seas on Monday — Two are being held in the South China Sea near the disputed Paracel Islands, one in the East China Sea, and one in the northern Bohai Sea, while live-fire drills are scheduled in the southern Yellow Sea.

China says it has neared completion in building a 450-foot-long search and rescue (SAR) ship, the largest SAR ship in the world, according to Beijing, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Wednesday.

Chinese military aircraft have been spotted at China’s largest illegal military base in the disputed South China Sea, suggesting that the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF) have started to use the site as a strategic operations base, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Wednesday, citing military surveillance by defense intelligence source Jane’s.

Officials in Vietnam accused China of having “seriously violated” the country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Monday.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the South China Morning Post, the U.S. Navy on Thursday released video of an unsafe encounter between a Chinese warship and the destroyer USS Decatur in September 2018. 

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Philippine Inquirer reported on Friday that a Philippine Coast Guard patrol boat, the BRP Sindangan, encountered some form of signal jamming last week while patrolling in the South China Sea. Given the location, suspicions immediately turned to the Chinese military as the source of the jamming signal.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.”

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 group of over 100 Chinese tourists swarmed Yagong Island, in the disputed Paracel Island chain of the South China Sea, this weekend for a “flag-raising ceremony” to assert China’s sovereignty over the region.

The governments of Vietnam and the Philippines diverged significantly in their reactions to news that China has begun operating weather stations on their territory in the South China Sea. Vietnam released an outraged statement condemning China on Thursday, while Manila refused to condemn without “proof.”

U.S. defense officials have confirmed a Chinese warship performed “unsafe and unprofessional” maneuvers in the South China Sea on Sunday, coming perilously close to an American destroyer and forcing the U.S. Navy ship to change course in order to avoid a collision.

President Rodrigo Duterte claims he quarreled with China after the Chinese military tried to drive away Philippine Navy planes flying over the disputed South China Sea last month. 

A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane, which was carrying a CNN news team on board Friday, flew past a series of artificial islands known as the Spratly Chain in the South China Sea. The plane reportedly received at least six separate warnings from the Chinese military to leave the area.

Large red banners reading “Welcome to the Philippines, Province of China” mysteriously appeared on bridges throughout the nation’s capital Manila on Thursday, the second anniversary of an international legal ruling that declared China’s presence in Philippine territory in the South China Sea was illegal.

Vietnamese users of Facebook were outraged last week to discover a map on the social media platform that depicted the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea as Chinese territory, even though Vietnam also has territorial claims in both island chains.

A little over a month into his administration, Malaysia’s 92-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed addressed the matter of Chinese territorial aggression in the South China Sea by recommending the use of “small boats” instead of “warships” to hold Beijing at bay.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s regular briefing Wednesday featured yet another tirade against the president of U.S. military assets in the South China Sea, which have increased operations to keep the region free of Chinese colonization in the past year.

A report published Wednesday, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry asserted it was “not scared” of a growing U.S. presence in the region, suggests China has withdrawn some of its missile systems in the South China Sea.

The United States flew two B-52 bombers near the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Monday following several similar displays to respond to China’s militarization of the region.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday it has disinvited China from participating in the upcoming Rim of the Pacific Exercise, in a major sign of tension between the U.S. and Chinese militaries.

China reportedly landed one of its H-6K heavy bombers on Woody Island in the Paracels late last week, increasing concerns about Chinese militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea, prompting a complaint and “appropriate diplomatic action” from the Philippines.

James Delingpole and British MP Daniel Kawczynski discuss potential successors to British Prime Minister Theresa May. Among their favorites are MPs Jacob Rees Mogg and Priti Patel. Also, James and Kawczynski weigh in on Brexit, Poland, and the changes in Saudi Arabia.