South China Sea - Page 4

The communist government of Vietnam has rapidly accelerated the construction of facilities that appear military in nature in the South China Sea, Voice of America observed Wednesday, citing satellite image studies.

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.

The Chinese Communist Party continued to expand its illegal construction on Philippine territory in the South China Sea throughout the coronavirus pandemic, satellite images published this week indicated.

The U.S. Navy announced its latest Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea on Friday, as the guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law.” China claimed air and naval units of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “tracked, monitored, and warned off” the American ship.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China sent a record number of warplanes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Saturday and Sunday, an intimidating display staged only a few days after the inauguration of President Joe Biden in the United States.

An underwater drone recovered within Indonesian waters last month is of Chinese origin, defense analytics firm Janes confirmed Sunday.

China’s state-run media made numerous demands of President-Elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, demanding changes to U.S. policy on the South China Sea, the Indo-Pacific region, and Taiwan.

President Donald Trump talked about China a great deal during his 2016 campaign. His first term featured some very high-profile economic, security, and diplomatic conflicts with Communist China, culminating in the biggest event of 2020, the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. How well does his first-term scorecard on China line up with his 2016 campaign promises?

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, in an address on Friday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of China’s entry into the Korean War, quoted Chinese Communist godfather Mao Zedong to threaten war against China’s adversaries.

The Philippine Navy said this week that it is creating its own maritime militia force, including armed fishermen, to protect the nation’s territorial waters in the South China Sea from Chinese incursions.

Some coral reefs in the South China Sea are “gone forever” due to China’s illegal creation of military bases atop them, a marine biologist and expert on the sea told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Monday. “If you built something,

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.

Vietnamese President Nguyễn Phú Trọng called for China to “exercise restraint” in the South China Sea on Thursday in a virtual speech at the 75th annual U.N. General Assembly. The call for moderation follows months of Beijing’s belligerent actions in the contested maritime region.

In a virtual speech at the 75th annual U.N. general assembly on Tuesday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that his country “firmly rejects” Beijing’s recent “attempts to undermine” international law by illegally encroaching upon other nations’ sovereign territory in the South China Sea.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry lodged a formal protest with Beijing on Monday after a Chinese coastguard ship intruded into the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea for two straight days.

China must “be prepared” for war amid escalating territorial disputes with neighboring countries that have increased the risk of military conflict in recent months, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times argued on Friday.

Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes violated Taiwan’s airspace for the second consecutive day on Thursday, according to the island nation’s defense ministry.

A report published by Nikkei Asian Review (NAR) on Thursday asserted that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is planning “another brutal purge” of his military leadership.

A Vietnamese fishing crew say a Chinese coast guard vessel rammed their boat this summer in the South China Sea. During the attack, the Chinese crew allegedly beat the Vietnamese fishermen and forced them to sign a statement handing over $20,000 worth of fish and equipment, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday announced the United States will place restrictions on Chinese diplomats in the U.S. in a move reciprocal to those placed on American diplomats on China.

Chinese state media on Friday claimed the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) “expelled” an American destroyer, the USS Mustin, from the South China Sea near the Xisha Islands, known in the West as the Paracel Islands.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched two missiles, including one known as an “aircraft-carrier killer,” into the South China Sea on Wednesday morning, a Chinese military source told the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently debuted its latest transport helicopter, the Z-8L, capable of transporting an all-terrain assault vehicle.

China’s ambassador to Hungary, Duan Jielong, was elected to a seat on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Monday. The United States strongly objected to Duan’s nomination, arguing that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s leading maritime criminal. 

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Sunday that Bejing’s “nine-dash line” – used to illegally claim nearly all of the South China Sea – is a figment of the Chinese Communist Party’s imagination.

Malaysia said Monday that a Vietnamese fisherman died from gunshot wounds sustained in a conflict in the South China Sea after the nation’s coast guard tried to ward off two Vietnamese boats suspected of illegal fishing.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong released footage of its forces conducting a live-fire drill in the South China Sea on Sunday, two days after the U.S. Navy said it carried out exercises in the hotly contested maritime region.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen in a video statement at a U.S. think tank event in Washington on Wednesday touted the strength of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship amid a growing threat from China.

A multi-ethnic coalition against the Communist Party of China convened an event Sunday in Washington, DC, urging Americans to join their efforts against Beijing’s illegal territorial claims, affecting over half a dozen countries.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently debuted a new bomber as it carried out an “attack exercise” in the South China Sea, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced Thursday.

In an op-ed published by the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times on Thursday, Black Agenda Report editor and former Green Party candidate Ajamu Baraka took China’s side against the United States and trashed America as a “white supremacist settler colonial state.”

The Chinese Communist government on Friday ordered the United States consulate in Chengdu to close in retaliation for the U.S. shuttering the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.

China’s naval aviation forces held “live-fire maritime target attack drills” in the South China Sea involving “JH-7 fighter bombers” and deployed several warplanes to the disputed Paracel Islands late last week, Chinese state media reported on Monday.

The United States rejected China’s claim to own offshore resources in the South China Sea on Monday, prompting a response from Chinese media questioning the mental stability of the U.S. government.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece the Global Times accused Washington on Tuesday of stirring up maritime “trouble” and threatened to prepare for regional “military confrontations” with the U.S. in response to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement declaring Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea “unlawful.”

The U.S. military has documented a “surge of maritime activity” by China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea since the coronavirus pandemic began, indicating that Beijing has been capitalizing on the global distraction caused by the crisis to bolster its illegal claims to territory in the waters, Reuters reported on Friday.