The big risks of 2024: Taiwan elections, Philippine shoals, AUKUS dough
Keep your eyes on the Second Scarborough Shoal and other atolls in the South China Sea, where China has pressed an increasingly aggressive and dangerous campaign.
5 Indo-Pacific stories: China’s neighbors clasp hands while AUKUS tumbles along
The biggest strategic shift in the Indo-Pacific was clearly the combination of China's economy faltering at the same time as turmoil roiled the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party and its government.
‘Mind your own business’: PRC defense minister to world, hours after PLAN ship rushes US destroyer
"The big strategic goal is a Chinese-led international order, a Chinese century, where the US strategic primacy has ended. The US can basically move back to the Western Hemisphere and focus on itself, which is what he was saying," Malcom Davis, China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said.
US Ships, Planes Challenge 22 Countries’ Claims — Not Just China’s
WASHINGTON: In 2016, the Defense Department flew aircraft or steamed ships through territories claimed by Albania, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Malta, and, well, China, according to the Pentagon’s annual report released today. So should Beijing be relieved it was not the sole focus of American Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) or should it feel slighted that it […]
Quarantine? What Are American Options for the South China Sea?
Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who had expressed serious reservations about Rex Tillerson, President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State, said Sunday afternoon they would vote for him, pretty much assuring his elevation. The most combustible part of Tillerson’s testimony was about how to handle a rising China’s actions in the South and East […]
F-22s Coming To Australia Next Year: PACOM’s Adm. Harris
SYDNEY: While it will be a short deployment, Australia and the United States have agreed to deploy America’s most advanced fighter next year as part of the Enhanced Air Cooperation (EAC) Initiative that has seen B-2 bombers and other advanced American aircraft deployed to the lucky country. Adm. Harry Harris, head of Pacific Command, disclosed […]
‘Lot Of Noise’, Little Change In Philippine-US Relationship: State
WASHINGTON: China continues to claim sovereign control of the South and East China Seas, but the Beijing is taking no actions to enforce its claims, a senior State Department official says. “The point to stress is this: no one is stopping a US Navy warship. The Chinese are not stopping US Navy warships,” Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of State for East […]
Chinese Threaten Japan, Australia Over South China Sea; Time For US FON Ops?
UPDATED: Adds Excellent CSIS Study On International Support For Chinese Claims WASHINGTON: What are China’s intentions in the South China Sea? It’s a question intelligence analysts, diplomats and the senior leadership of the United States and its Pacific allies are all asking in the wake of a range of increasingly belligerent and threatening comments and […]
Chinese Ambassador Blasts South China Sea Tribunal
WASHINGTON: After a UN tribunal ruled stingingly against Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, Beijing reacted with its characteristically prickly mix of grandiosity and insecurity. The official Chinese perspective inverts Washington’s worldview so thoroughly it can be hard for Americans to understand: International rules are rigged, US military presence is destabilizing, China rightfully […]
Don’t Push China Too Hard After SCS Ruling
UPDATED with Chinese Ambassador, Sen. Sullivan, & CSIS conference WASHINGTON: “To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape,” Sun Tzu wrote 2,500 years ago. It’s a stratagem – often called the “golden bridge” – that the US and its allies would do well to remember tomorrow morning, when a UN tribunal will almost […]
US Must Do More In South China Sea, Urges Sen. McCain
SINGAPORE: In a clear message to the Obama Administration, our Pacific partners and to China, Sen. John McCain says the US military is not doing enough to challenge Chinese claims in the strategic South China Sea. Nor is the US doing enough to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, a vital economic objective in the […]
Chinese Scarborough Shoal Base Would Threaten Manila
UPDATED with Sen. McCain & Dean Cheng comments WASHINGTON: If China builds an artificial island on the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Sen. Dan Sullivan warned today, it will complete a “strategic triangle” of bases that can dominate the South China Sea. At this morning’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sullivan displayed a map (above) of the region […]
China Seeks ‘Hegemony’ in Asia: Adm. Harris, PACOM
WASHINGTON: The gloves came off during today’s Senate Armed Services committee hearing on China and North Korea with Pacific Command’s Adm. Harry Harris saying that China seeks “hegemony in East Asia” and is unequivocally militarizing the South China Sea. “In my opinion, China is clearly militarizing its position in the South China Sea. You’d have to believe […]
McCain, Forbes Praise New Navy Challenge To China In Paracel Islands
[UPDATED with experts’ analysis; “innocent passage” confirmed] WASHINGTON: Just two days after the head of US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, pledged to push harder on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within the 12 nautical mile limit around Triton Island. Situated in the Paracels, which are claimed […]
US Will Push Chinese Harder On Territorial Claims: PACOM
UPDATE: USS Wilbur sails through Paracel Islands Friday WASHINGTON: The United States will keep challenging Chinese claims in the South China Sea, the head of Pacific Command said this afternoon. Such Freedom of Navigation operations will grow in frequency, complexity, and scope, said Adm. Harry Harris. And Harris defended the first such FON operation” since 2012, last October’s cruise of the […]