Tag: South China Sea

US warns ‘aggressive’ Beijing in South China Sea

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The United States will keep challenging Beijing’s “assertive, aggressive behavior in the South China Sea”, the US Pacific commander said Wednesday, as tensions between two powers rise over comments by Donald Trump. Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, warned Washington would not accept Chinese control of the region, despite Beijing’s rapid development of artificial islands capable of hosting military planes. He remarks come as Beijing reacted angrily after […]

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Australia, Indonesia mull joint South China Sea patrols

    SYDNEY, Australia | AFP | — Australia is considering joint patrols with Indonesia in the disputed South China Sea, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Tuesday, in a move set to irk Beijing. The possibility was raised by Jakarta during meetings between Bishop and Defence Minister Marise Payne and Indonesian officials including Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu last week. “We have agreed to explore options to increase maritime cooperation and of course that would include […]

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Australia, Indonesia mull joint South China Sea patrols

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia is considering joint patrols with Indonesia in the disputed South China Sea, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Tuesday, in a move set to irk Beijing. The possibility was raised by Jakarta during meetings between Bishop and Defence Minister Marise Payne and Indonesian officials including Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu last week. “We have agreed to explore options to increase maritime cooperation and of course that would include coordinated activities in the […]

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China ships still at disputed shoal, fishermen back: Manila

  MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Chinese coastguard ships are still patrolling the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea but are not stopping Filipinos from fishing there, a Philippine defence spokesman said Sunday. The information — from fishermen who have just returned from the shoal — came despite earlier Philippine government statements that the Chinese had left the outcrop they seized in 2012. A spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte had said Saturday there were no […]

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Chinese vessels leave disputed shoal: Philippine official

  MANILA, Philippines AFP | — Chinese vessels have left the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a Philippine official said Saturday, less than a week after President Rodrigo Duterte visited Beijing pledging closer ties. The firebrand leader used the trip to vaunt his move away from traditional ally the United States in favour of Beijing — which was previously at loggerheads with Manila over the maritime dispute. China took control of the […]

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China communicating with PHL on fishing cooperation in South China Sea

  (Reuters) — China said on Friday (October 28) it was communicating with the Philippines over fishing industry cooperation in the disputed South China Sea after President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit in Beijing. China will consider giving Filipino fishermen conditional access to disputed waters in the South China Sea after the presidents from the two countries meet in Beijing this week, said two Chinese sources with ties to the leadership when Duterte was visiting in China […]

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Duterte, Xi to restore talks on South China Sea dispute

  President Rodrigo Duterte and President Xi Jinping on Thursday (October 20) agreed to resume their talks over disputes and issues in the South China Sea, Chinese vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said. “The two presidents agreed that China and the Philippines will return to the track of dialogue and consultation to properly handle the South China Sea issue,” Liu said through a translator. “China is ready for discussions with friends in the Philippines on maritime […]

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China never invaded a piece of PHL over generations—Duterte

  PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte praised China on Wednesday (October 19), setting aside its maritime dispute as the combative leader reconfigures his country’s diplomatic alliances. The Asian giant was “good”, he said. “It has never invaded a piece of my country all these generations,” Duterte added in an apparent comparison to the Philippines’ former colonial ruler the United States. “During the Cold War, China was portrayed as the bad guy,” he added. “And all of […]

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Power play in the South China Sea

By Huiyun Feng, Griffith University (Courtesy East Asia Forum)  — In September 2016, Russia and China started their routine naval drill, ‘Joint Sea-2016’, off the coast of China’s Guangdong province. This was the fifth joint naval drill between the two nations since 2012, but the first to take place in the South China Sea. The decision to carry out this exercise in the South China Sea was announced after The Hague ruling in July, which […]

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China raps US interventions in Asia at regional forum

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing rapped Washington Tuesday for its interventions in Asia, as tensions grow between the two powers over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and how to handle increasingly erratic North Korea. Speaking at the 7th annual Xiangshan regional defence forum in Beijing, Chang Wanguan, China’s defence minister, levied thinly veiled criticism at recent US involvement in Asia’s trouble spots. Washington has conducted freedom of navigation operations close to artificial islands […]

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Indonesia holds military drill at South China Sea islands

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — The Indonesian air force Thursday held a major exercise around its islands in the South China Sea where there have been clashes with Chinese vessels in waters claimed by Beijing. Thousands of personnel as well as F-16, Sukhoi and Hercules planes took part in the drill around the remote Natuna islands in the far northwest of the archipelago, with President Joko Widodo in attendance. Military spokesman Tatang Sulaiman said the exercise […]

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China warns Japan not to ‘play with fire’ in S. China Sea

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Thursday warned Japan against “playing with fire” in the contested waters of the South China Sea, after Tokyo announced it may patrol alongside the US in the region. China also sent fighter planes for the first time over a strait near Japan on Monday as part of a group of more than 40 jets headed to train in the West Pacific. The move followed remarks by Japanese Defence Minister […]

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