Last week on BBC’s “Hardtalk,” actress Jane Fonda was asked by show host Stephen Sackur if inside her she had a “sense of regret” for her 1972 visit to North Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. Fonda denied having
President Donald Trump together with First Lady Melania Trump plans to visit Asia in November. He will take in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Hawaii.
Contents: China demands that Indonesia end plans to rename its own territorial waters; Indonesia blocks China’s repeated attempts to annex Indonesia’s Natuna Islands
Vietnam condemned Chinese live-fire military drills near disputed islands in the South China Sea this week, but the complaint was dismissed by a Chinese official who implied Hanoi was acting irrationally.
Contents: Vietnam protests China’s military drills near the Gulf of Tonkin in South China Sea; India and Vietnam become allies in confronting China
Contents: Thailand’s former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra flees to Dubai; Collapse of Thailand’s democracy; Brief generational history of Thailand
During a meeting in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich agreed that an American aircraft carrier would sail to Vietnam next year, marking the first such visit since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Contents: China sets apparent Aug 19 deadline for India to remove soldiers from Doklam; Trump threatens North Korea with ‘fire and fury’
At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting this weekend, Australia and Japan joined the United States in calling for a legally binding “code of conduct” for the South China Sea. More to the point, they want an internationally-recognized legal barrier to China’s conduct in the region.
Contents: UK to send warships to South China Sea, as China’s neighbors militarize; South China Sea countries build larger navies, preparing for war with China
Indonesia is attempting to change the name of a portion of the hotly disputed South China Sea that falls within its exclusive economic zone, christening it the “North Natuna Sea.”
23-year-old Tran Hoang Phuc was arrested by Vietnamese police this week for “spreading propaganda videos against the government.”
Contents: China and India have military confrontation over Bhutan’s Doklam plateau; Border tensions grow between China and India
A report updated this week suggests that China has continued to build advanced military facilities on illegally-seized reefs and artificial islands in the South China Sea, as the anniversary of an international tribunal ruling against China on the matter nears.
A well-known Vietnamese blogger who went by the screen name “Mother Mushroom” was sentenced to ten years in prison on Thursday for publishing “anti-state propaganda.”
The U.S. military confirmed a military exercise by Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers over the South China Sea Thursday, a move that prompted Beijing, which illegally claims most of the sea, to remind Washington that it remains “vigilant” before U.S. exercises.
Vietnam’s government claims that Google’s parent company Alphabet will help censor “toxic content” in the country, according to a statement.
The UK Daily Mail cites Chinese media reports that “anti-frogman” rocket launchers have been installed on a disputed South China Sea island to keep Vietnamese divers at bay.
Contents: Ancient tensions flare between China and North Korea; China’s relations deteriorate with both South and North Korea
The Vietnamese village of My Duc was the scene of a major hostage crisis that ended without bloodshed on Saturday, with the release of 38 police and public officials held hostage for a week by villagers angry about the seizure of their land.
In today’s world of a Donald Trump presidency in which any actions he undertakes, regardless of its logical rational, becomes a topic of criticism by his political opponents, we must look at two of his decisions – independent of the tainted lenses through which critics choose to view them – made concerning Syria.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte once again criticized the United States for not acting with sufficient boldness to keep China from usurping the Philippine waters of the South China Sea, questioning why Washington did not send an “armada” to the Spratly Islands.”
Satellite images published this week confirm that China has almost completed the construction of a variety of military assets in the Philippine and Vietnamese South China Sea, assets that allow it to deploy fighter jets and missile launchers at a moment’s notice and provide it expanded surveillance capabilities.
Contents: Taiwan says it must defend against increasingly threatening China; China responds harshly to Taiwan’s defense report; Taiwan’s government responds to China’s threats; China begins construction on Philippines’ Scarborough Shoal
(Reuters) — Vietnam on Thursday called on all companies doing business there to stop advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other social media until they find a way to halt the publication of “toxic” anti-government information.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte walked back concerns about China’s presence in an undisputed Philippine South China Sea territory on Monday, calling reports of tension “exaggerated” while demanding the navy “tell them straight that this is ours” by constructing new “structures” meant to ward off Chinese territorial challenges.
The government of Vietnam has condemned China for imposing a fishing ban over its territory in the Paracel Islands, a South China Sea archipelago that China illegally claims as its own.
Contents: Vietnam protests China’s fishing ban in the South China Sea; China’s fishing ban related to food security in times of war; North Korea fires four ballistic missiles into sea near Japan
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), currently chaired by the Philippines, is aspiring to debut a new maritime code of conduct by June intended to diminish tensions between member nations and China in the South China Sea.
Lawmakers in South Korea on Monday accused North Korea of masterminding the murder of dictator Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia. Meanwhile, an Indonesian official revived the theory that the killers were innocent women duped into poisoning the victim.
Contents: China preparing to install long-range missiles in South China Sea; China’s ASEAN neighbors express increasing anxiety over China’s illegal militarization
China is considering modifications to its maritime law that would require foreign vessels to identify themselves to Beijing and would require submarines to travel above the surface. As China considers most of the South China Sea and some of the East China Sea as its own, the law would thus require Vietnamese, Philippine, and other vessels to report to China in their own domestic waters.
On Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney said it was “a little unsettling” that President Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Lt. General H.R. McMaster, is receiving nearly universal praise.
The government of India appears to be seeking a bigger role in Asia as tense relations between the United States and China continue.
The Chinese government bristled at reports suggesting the Trump administration is considering a new round of Freedom of Navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea, warning the United States not to “challenge China’s sovereignty” in territory international courts have found China has no claims to.
A report published this week unveils significant Chinese development of military constructions and placement of new naval and aerial military assets in the Paracel Islands, a disputed territory in the South China Sea.
The Chinese government has continued to protest the Trump administration’s repeated assurances it would oppose China’s ongoing colonization of international waters in the South China Sea, most recently challenging White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for calling the waters in question “international territory.”
Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay confirmed this week that Manila had sent Beijing a formal protest about the development of military infrastructure in the South China Sea, where China has invested heavily in colonizing sovereign Philippine territory.
Contents: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad calls Aleppo’s ‘liberation’ a historic event; Syria and Russia suffer a big military setback in Palmyra; Syria’s civil war shows similarities to America’s Vietnam war
The Chinese government has reportedly seized an American Navy vessel navigating the international waters in the South China Sea.
