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.
The Philippines is reportedly looking to lodge a protest against China’s alleged presence of two military aircraft on a Chinese-built island in the South China Sea.
Chinese Communist Party leader traveled to the South China Sea on Thursday to preside over what state media are calling “the country’s largest ever maritime military parade,” a series of exercises meant to intimidate rival powers in a region where Beijing has illegally colonized foreign territory.
The USS Mustin American destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands on Friday, prompting an angry statement from Beijing claiming that China has “indisputable sovereignty” over the islands and accusing the United States of “harming regional peace and stability” with its patrols.
Contents: Report that Russia is helping the Taliban in Afghanistan contains delusional aspects; US warship sails near China’s illegal artificial island in the South China Sea
The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday published photos showing the breathtaking extent of Chinese military construction on disputed reefs in the Spratly Islands area of the South China Sea. The Inquirer presents the aerial photography as evidence that China is almost finished transforming the reefs into “island fortress” for the purpose of controlling the entire region.
The government of the Philippines announced on Tuesday that it would lodge a formal diplomatic protest with China over its construction of an airbase on the disputed Fiery Cross Reef, part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
China’s foreign ministry vociferously protested the presence of the USS Chafee near the Paracel Islands on Tuesday, a naval warship conducting a “freedom of navigation” exercise in international waters that Beijing insists fall under Chinese control.
The latest freedom of navigation patrol for the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea brought the destroyer USS John S. McCain to within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island off the Philippine coast on Thursday.
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.
On Saturday, two high-ranking Philippine officials visited the island of Pag-asa in the South China Sea, drawing a protest from China, which claims ownership of the entire region.
Contents: President Trump orders missile strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s Syria; Philippines president Duterte orders military to occupy South China Sea islands; Philippines sends warship to Benham Rise to protect from China
A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman denied the existence of Chinese-made artificial islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, a bizarre development given the open construction of such islands and promotion of their newly-installed assets in Chinese media.
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.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said “in jest” during a speech Thursday that he believed China was seeking to turn his country into “a province” of theirs, after condemning the United States for not doing enough to stop China from building artificial islands on Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
The Philippines has threatened to protest the launch of a building project on the Scarborough Shoal, a land formation within the Philippines’ sovereign territory that also falls within China’s “nine-dash line,” a territorial claim struck down by an international tribunal.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Japan’s defense minister announced in Washington Thursday that the nation is seeking to participate in joint maritime exercises with the United States in the South China Sea, a direct challenge to China’s repeated demands for Japan to stay out of the region.
The fallout from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s very public insults towards President Barack Obama continues. Russia, previously silent on China’s creeping invasion of Philippine territory in the South China Sea, has now issued a statement supporting Beijing.
An exclusive Reuters report reveals that Vietnam has “discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China’s runways and military installations across the vital trade route.”
Contents: Vietnam deploys rocket launchers in South China Sea to confront China; Japan-China relations ‘deteriorate significantly’ after repeated Chinese provocations
