By Manuel Mogato (Reuters) Southeast Asian countries and China will establish hotlines and adopt communications protocols to avoid potential naval clashes in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, a Philippines foreign ministry official said on Friday. The protocols will be signed in Laos next week, when heads of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations … [Read more...]
Hague Court to Rule in July on Challenge to China’s Sea Claims
By David Tweed (Bloomberg) -- An international court will rule next month on the validity of China’s claims to a large swath of one of the world’s busiest and most disputed waterways. The court will release its decision on the South China Sea on July 12, first to the parties involved and then to observer states, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said in a … [Read more...]
China’s Missile Move Sparks Questions on South China Sea Plans
By David Tweed (Bloomberg) -- China sparked new questions about its intentions in the South China Sea after it deployed surface-to- air missiles to a contested island, a move that came just months after President Xi Jinping promised not to militarize the disputed atolls. Satellite images showed two batteries of eight HQ-9 surface-to-air missile launchers and a radar … [Read more...]
U.S. Touts ‘Batman’ Destroyer as Obama Courts Asean Leaders
By David Tweed and Toluse Olorunnipa (Bloomberg) -- U.S. officials are looking to superheroes in their quest to preserve Asia’s postwar security order in the face of an increasingly assertive China. “If Batman had a ship, this’d be it,” Admiral Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, told a crowd of Asia specialists in Washington last month as he pointed to a slide of … [Read more...]
China Says Island Building Protects Distant Reefs
By David Tweed (Bloomberg) - China refuted claims it is militarizing the disputed South China Sea, saying it needs to build facilities on artificial islands and reefs to protect them. “As the islands and reefs are far from China’s mainland it is necessary to maintain and build necessary military facilities,” Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said at a briefing in … [Read more...]
U.S. Navy Destroyer to Sail Within 12 Miles of China-Built Artificial Islands in South China Sea
By Andrea Shalal and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy plans to send the destroyer USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea within 24 hours, in the first of a series of challenges to China's territorial claims, a U.S. defense official said on Monday. The patrol would occur near … [Read more...]
China’s Lighthouses in Spratlys Beckon Recognition from Passing Ships
By Greg Torode HONG KONG (Reuters) - The next time the United States sends warships by China's man-made islands in the disputed South China, officers aboard will have to decide how, if at all, they will engage with a pair of giant lighthouses that Beijing lit up there this month. Chinese officials say the lighthouses on Cuarteron Reef and Johnson South Reef in … [Read more...]