China, Philippine coastguard vessels clash in South China Sea.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday warned his Philippine counterpart that Manila would “bear the bitter consequences” if it tried to provoke Beijing with the help of other countries. Wang made the remark as he lodged a “strong protest” during talks with Theresa Lazaro, the Philippines’ top diplomat, in Manila over what he called an “aggressive act of ramming a Chinese law enforcement vessel” at a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Monday. It was the third day Beijing has...
Dispute erupts in South China Sea after incident near Second Thomas Shoal involving Chinese and Philippine vessels.
On July 12, a coalition of 14 nations – the United States, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and seven European states including Germany, Italy and the Baltic nations – issued a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the South China Sea ruling at The Hague in 2016. The document recycled familiar arguments, urging compliance with the ruling and framing it as a cornerstone of the rules-based international order. But beneath it lies a fundamental disconnect from...
A decade after a tribunal in The Hague ruled on July 12, 2016, that China’s sweeping South China Sea claims had no legal basis, Philippine officials and analysts say Manila remains heavily outmatched at sea but has begun turning its landmark legal victory into a more credible form of deterrence. The Philippines brought the case in 2013 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), challenging Beijing’s nine-dash line and other claims. The tribunal ruled that China’s...
Wu Shicun is the founding president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies and chairman of the Huayang Centre for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance. In this interview, the first in a series about the South China Sea dispute, he discusses ways Beijing can respond to rival claimants. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. With Manila intensifying its “transparency” campaign, how does China view the...
Beijing on Saturday rotated a new coastguard task force into waters east of Taiwan. The second such deployment in about a month came days after China’s top diplomat urged Washington to exercise “utmost prudence” on the self-governed island. The move also comes close on the heels of high-level talks with the Philippines, where Beijing pressed Manila to match words with deeds and stabilise bilateral relations amid persistent South China Sea tensions. The Chinese coastguard said on Saturday that...