The South China Sea region faces a heightened risk of conflict as it arms itself at an “alarming rate,” an expert from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute told CNBC on Monday. It comes as worldwide military spending surpassed $2 ...
No ordinary boats: Cracking the code on China’s Spratly maritime militias
By Ryan Martinson A Chinese fishing vessel appears in a sensitive location—near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, a South China Sea reef, or just offshore from a U.S. military base. Is it an “ordinary” fishing boat, or ...
If the US went to war with China, who would win?
Admiral James Stavridis was 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and 12th Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He spent the bulk of his operational career in the Pacific, and is author of “2034: ...
The Quad in the Indo-Pacific
The Quad, composed of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan, is not a formal alliance. Still, the group has intensified its security and economic ties as tensions with China rise. What does the Quad do? The Quad, officially the Quadrilateral ...
Vietnam’s deft diplomacy amid China versus US tensions
Vietnam following its chairmanship in ASEAN in 2020 as well as the ongoing membership as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has provided the country with more maturity and adept outlook in addressing both security concerns ...
Winning Vietnam Defends A Line In The Sand
Since 2019 Vietnam has been visibly improving its military facilities on several of the Spratly islands that China has been claiming even though the islands are closer to Vietnam and were often occupied by Vietnamese civilian or military facilities. The ...
South China Sea: The Disputes and Southeast Asia’s Culture of International Law
Pham Minh Trang Most observers usually look at the South China Sea disputes with pessimistic eyes. After capturing the attention of the world in 2009, when China for the first time officially introduced the nine-dash-line map, the conflicts in the ...
Remarks by President Biden on America’s Place in the World
FEBRUARY 04, 2021 • SPEECHES AND REMARKS U.S. Department of State Headquarters Harry S. Truman Building Washington, D.C. 2:45 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Secretary, it’s great to be here with you. And I’ve been looking forward a long time ...
Sino-Japanese relationship on the South China Sea issue and ASEAN’s role
China aims to prevent disputes in the South China Sea from becoming a multilateral issue, and seeks ways to solve tensions through bilateral negotiations. Beijing does not want an influential third party like Japan to enter the region. With this ...
Fish stocks in East Sea fall sharply
Excessive fishing has caused fish stocks in the East Sea to plunge 95 percent since 1950, a recent report of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed. Chinese fishing vessels in the East Sea (Photo: sggp.org.vn) Fish catches also suffered a ...
China’s use of force to take over features in Spratly Islands for monopoly of the South China Sea
It was not until 1988 that there was Chinese presence in the Spratly Islands (Itu Aba Island was occupied by the Republic of China in Taiwan). Taking advantage of Vietnam’s difficulties in the late 1980s, China dispatched its navy to ...
Has China’s presence in the South China Sea exacerbated tensions with its smaller neighbours?
Right now, China and its southern neighbours are fighting a regional sea-battle with global implications. At stake is a cornerstone of the international rules-based system: should states respect the treaties they have signed or use force to get their way? ...
Vietnam’s Need to Become a Proactive Middle Power
Vietnam’s Need to Become a Proactive Middle Power The most frequently-asked question from U.S. scholars and experts visiting Vietnam these days is, “What does Vietnam want from the United States when it comes to the South China Sea?” Given the ...
Foreign scholars condemn China’s bullying behaviour in East Sea
China is engaged in a long-term and consistent campaign of coercing Southeast Asian countries to abandon their legitimate rights in the East Sea. China’s recent activities in the East Sea are contrary to international laws, including the United Nations Convention ...
On the way to the largest naval power: China wants sea
The “New Silk Road” is to extend Beijing’s influence on the water – to the North Sea. It’s not just about economic interests. The huge project intensifies military tensions. Hardly any major project of the Chinese government is internationally so ...
Fish for peace in the South China Sea
This article comments favorably on the CSIS expert working group’s blueprint for establishing regional cooperative arrangements in the South China Sea. Yet this article proposes an alternative—or supplementary—approach. Quite a few scholars have come up with proposals for how to ...
What Vietnam needs to do to counter Chinese intrusion in the Vanguard Bank
From July 3, 2019, Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 entered the Vanguard Bank in Vietnam’s EEZ to “conduct a seismic survey”. This is the most serious incident by China in the last 5 years since its installation of the ...
Forecast of 4 development steps of the US-China trade war
Forecast of 4 development steps of the US-China trade war First step: Trade war From March 2018, President of the United States (US) D. Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on goods from China into the US, up to 60 ...
China’s embrace of the Greater Mekong Subregion
Dr Joern Dosch The Mekong is Southeast Asia’s longest river and the twelfth-largest in the world. It originates in Tibet, flows through the Chinese province of Yunnan, and continues southward across or alongside Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – ...
Beware of China’s actions and attempts to invade the South China Sea
The sovereignty dispute over the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea between Vietnam and China has lasted for 45 years, which is one of the longest disputes between claimants over the same islands. This is also a complicated dispute ...