President Donald Trump sent a letter wishing his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a happy Lunar New Year and extending his well-wishes to the Chinese people on the occasion of the Lantern Festival, the first one-on-one communication between the two world leaders.
Contents: China-Philippines détente unravels over Scarborough Shoal; Mainstream media frets over Steve Bannon, the Fourth Turning, and Donald Trump
The Chinese government sent three warships to sail within 12 nautical miles of Japan’s Senkaku Islands shortly after U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis concluded his visit to South Korea and Japan.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis concluded his visit to Japan this weekend with a glowing statement praising Tokyo as a “model of cost-sharing” on defense, while warning China that the United States will not hesitate to defend Japan’s East China Sea islands should Beijing make a move to colonize them.
A poll released Friday shows that over four in five Philippine nationals support confronting China over their colonization of Philippine territory in the South China Sea, just as the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte announced it would honor an agreement to expand America’s military footprint in the country.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has published a commentary assuring Chinese readers that it is investing in preparations for potential war with the United States, citing the threat of a more robust American international presence, particularly 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.”
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that Secretary of Defense James Mattis will visit Japan and South Korea in early February, on his first overseas trip since confirmation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to remarks from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday suggesting the United States would not allow China to continue illegally occupying territory in the South China Sea with a warning: “Be cautious.”
After President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office and Hillary Clinton supporters finally accept it, an important question will confront a divided America: Can a once-great nation recover the greatness it has surrendered?
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.
According to the Associated Press, Chinese diplomats “say they aren’t overly worried by fiery rhetoric from Trump and his Cabinet picks, and that China won’t change its basic approach” to issues like the South China Sea.
The Chinese military engaged in multiple exercises near Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan this week, forcing all three nations to scramble jets while Beijing officials insisted the display of force was a “normal” event.
The Russian Navy is visiting the Philippines for “regional threat assessment drills,” as Russian state outlet Sputnik News puts it. While they are in town, the Russians are wooing the Filipinos with arms deals and crazy Kung Fu performances.
China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has been roaming through the South China Sea with its battle group in tow, making other Pacific powers nervous, especially Taiwan and Japan.
Although the historic nature of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbor this week is stressed by both American and Japanese officials, he is not actually the first Prime Minister of Japan to make such a visit.
The government of Japan has just drafted a record-breaking 5.13 trillion yen ($43.5 billion) defense budget plan, aimed at protecting its territory from Chinese military belligerence in the East China Sea and preparing for any instability in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.
China has agreed to invest 100 million yuan — more than $14 million — in new equipment for the Philippine police to be used in President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing campaign against drug crime.
Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney and SiriusXM host Alex Marlow delved into this week’s terror attacks in Berlin and Ankara on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.
“After friendly consultations between China and the United States, the transfer of the US underwater drone was smoothly completed in relevant waters in the South China Sea at midday on 20 December,” the Chinese Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday, referring to the device it seized about 50 miles from Subic Bay in the Philippines last week.
Chinese state-run propaganda publications are casting doubt on Beijing’s promise to return a stolen U.S. underwater drone in an “appropriate” manner, claiming that the drone may carry “valuable information” that China may not return with the hardware.
Contents: China says it will back down over US military drone seizure in South China Sea; Chinese bombers circling Taiwan raise talk of war during Trump’s first term
The Chinese government has reportedly seized an American Navy vessel navigating the international waters in the South China Sea.
The Chinese government appears to have accelerated its development of military assets in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, a territory claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
U.S. Pacific Command head Admiral Harry Harris vowed to prevent China from “closing down” the South China Sea in a speech on Wednesday, confirming that Australia would allow the U.S. to fly fighter planes out of its territory to help keep the region free.
In a television interview over the weekend, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said there was “serious concern” in Beijing about President-elect Donald Trump’s policy toward Taiwan.
With main objector Philippines placated, Vietnam is taking the mantle of opposition to China’s colonization of the South China Sea, with a new report indicating that it has begun dredging land in the Spratly Island chain.
Contents: Philippines to reject US use of its bases for South China Sea patrols; China says its South China Sea military buildup is a boon to the world; Vietnam and Australia reject China’s claims
The Chinese government appears to be adopting a two-sided diplomatic approach to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, with President Xi Jinping and his Foreign Ministry issuing moderated, friendly comments about Trump. China’s propaganda newspapers, however, seethe at the President-elect’s defiant moves against the Asian power.
Contents: No war erupted from Trump’s ten minute phone call with Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen; From the Truman Doctrine to renewed nationalism
Vietnam has invested in an expanded airplane runway in the Spratly Islands, a disputed chain in the South China Sea, that would grant it greater flexibility in defending its assets in the region from an increasingly belligerent China.
Chinese state media has deemed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s meeting with President-elect Donald Trump a failure while warning Tokyo not to feel emboldened by the alliance in the South China Sea, a sign that Trump’s decision to grant Abe his first one-on-one visit with a foreign head of state has rattled Beijing.
South Korea coast guard agents used machine guns to chase Chinese ships illegally fishing in Korean waters back towards China this week, prompting a stern statement from Beijing’s Foreign Ministry expressing extreme disappointment in Korea’s refusal to permit this illegal behavior.
In a move that may jeopardize his hard-earned political capital with China, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte expressed a willingness to engage in joint military exercises with Japan during his trip to Tokyo this week. His remarks follow repeated demands that the U.S. vacate its military posts throughout the Philippines.
The United States and communist Vietnam are committed to the rule of law in the disputed South China Sea, announced U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as longstanding U.S. ally in the region, the Philippines, is strengthening its ties with communist China.
The United States exercised a “freedom of navigation” operation in the South China Sea this weekend, once again challenging China’s growing colonization of international waters in the region.
Contents: Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte in comic dance with China; Duterte’s statement generates backlash at home; Philippines president Duterte apparently cedes Scarborough Shoal to China
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said “goodbye” to ties with the United States while in Beijing this week, leaving both Washington and much of the world “baffled,” according to the State Department, as Duterte offered no explanation regarding what that goodbye actually means.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is currently in Beijing, where he declared that “America has lost” the alliance with Manila and that he will work to strengthen ties with China, a nation that has usurped large swaths of Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio warned President Rodrigo Duterte that he may face impeachment if he does not properly protect Philippine territory from Chinese colonization, particularly the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
