South China Sea NewsWire
The aggregator service for balanced and insightful news
The aggregator service for balanced and insightful news
Malaysia has sent a complaint letter to Vietnam over its alleged expansion of a South China Sea reef that both countries claim as their own, two officials told Reuters, in a rare bilateral escalation not involving China.
The Philippine military opened two weeks of combat drills Monday that would include seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea and likely be frowned upon by China.
China’s aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong carried out dual aircraft carrier formation exercises for the first time in the South China Sea, the PLA navy said, a move that sets China’s navy up for more diverse and complex missions.
China’s Ministry of State Security said on Tuesday that it had retrieved spying devices both on the ocean surface and in the depths of the sea, including underwater “lighthouses” that could guide the transit of foreign submarines.
The Philippines is confident in the continuity of U.S. policies in the Asia-Pacific region after the U.S. presidential election and the two countries’ ties will remain strong regardless of the outcome, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense minister said, a day after Beijing held a live-fire exercise near the self-ruled island.
Indonesian patrol ships drove a Chinese coast guard vessel away from a survey vessel in a disputed area of the South China Sea for the second time in three days, Indonesian authorities said Thursday.
U.S. and Filipino marines used live fire Tuesday to rehearse their defense against a hostile amphibious landing, less than 150 miles from the August scene of a coast guard clash between China and U.S.-ally the Philippines.
One of the newest Chinese warships on Monday arrived in Vanuatu, an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, as China continued to expand its strategic footprint in the region.
The Philippines and Thailand will strengthen defense and security ties, particularly against transnational crimes, amid human trafficking incidents within Southeast Asia.
China has steadily been working to secure its lines of communication during any future conflict. At the same time, it has always considered South East Asia as its backyard and is loath to accepting any other power in the region.
The federal government of Malaysia is enhancing military protection for East Malaysia by building a new naval base in Bintulu, Sarawak, amid escalating tensions with China in the South China Sea. Scheduled to be ready by 2030, the base will offer better protection for Sarawak and Sabah in the face of repeated incursions by the Chinese navy into Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Sarawakian coast.
The Philippines and its allies, including Canada, Japan and the U.S., kicked off the maritime phase of Exercise Sama Sama 2024 in the South China Sea this week.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s tour of Southeast Asian countries shows Seoul has stepped up the country’s role in supporting regional security, but there are limits to what it can do to help them push back against China’s growing aggression, analysts say.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday reiterated that state energy firm Petronas will continue to conduct oil and gas exploration activities in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, despite objections from China.
The Philippines doubts China’s intention to negotiate a regional code of conduct in the South China Sea although Manila is looking forward to continuing discussions, Defence Minister Gilberto Teodoro said on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders Friday that the U.S. is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea during an annual summit meeting, and pledged the U.S. will continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the vital sea trade route.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr pressed Southeast Asian leaders and China at a regional summit on Thursday to urgently speed up negotiations on a code of conduct for the South China Sea, while accusing Beijing of harassment and intimidation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will represent the United States at summits with Asian leaders in Laos this week and expects to discuss human rights in Myanmar, China’s “irresponsible” behavior in the South China Sea and Ukraine, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said on Tuesday.
The Chinese coast guard has fired water cannons while attempting to disrupt a Philippine government mission near a contested South China Sea feature, Manila said on Tuesday.
After a dormant decade, calls for a new naval base in a sleepy town in Sarawak have gathered steam in recent weeks, with Malaysia potentially eyeing a more assertive stance against Chinese pressure in resource-rich areas near the Borneo state.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that Malaysia will not bow to demands by China to stop its oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea as the activities are within the country’s waters. Anwar said Malaysia would continue to explain its stance following China’s accusations in a protest note in February to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing that Kuala Lumpur had infringed on its territory.
The US is banning imports from two more Chinese companies over alleged human-rights abuses involving Uygurs, it was revealed on Wednesday, the latest development in America’s drive to eliminate goods made with forced labour from its supply chain.
Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the disputed South China Sea, state media reported Wednesday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels.
Vietnam’s state media say a Vietnamese fishing boat was attacked in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by both China and Vietnam, and 10 crew members sustained injuries
Satellite imagery showed that China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier while under construction, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored strong U.S. concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base in talks on Friday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, saying Beijing’s talk of peace in Ukraine “doesn’t add up.”
In a rare move, China on Thursday published a photograph showing the previous day’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach most of the continental United States.
Chinese General Wu Yanan attended Indo-Pacific defence meeting in Hawaii and had ‘candid exchange of views’ with US Admiral Samuel Paparo
A detachment of warships of Russia’s Pacific Fleet and the Chinese Navy entered the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific as part of joint navy exercises, Russia’s Interfax agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Pacific Fleet’s press service.
The Philippines has successfully resumed its coast guard presence at Sabina Shoal, of the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands that is fiercely contested by China.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida discussed diplomacy with China and their shared concerns over “coercive and destabilizing activities” in the South China Sea during a meeting on Saturday at the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, the White House said.
SCSNW Editor-in-Chief James Borton opines on the recent meeting of Quad Leaders with U.S. President Joe Biden in Delaware. Borton further offers his thoughts on the importance of the Quad as a geopolitical grouping in the South China Sea in the face of Chinese aggression in the region.
Tensions brewing in Asia’s trade-rich waters top the agenda as U.S. President Joe Biden welcomes leaders from Australia, India and Japan to his Delaware hometown for a diplomatic push to counter China in the waning months of his presidency.
US lawmaker and the Chairman of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition With China, John Moolenaar has highlighted China’s interventions and malicious intentions of harming the US and countries located in the South China Sea.
The Philippines will continuously deploy vessels in the contested Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday after a Philippine ship returned to port after a five-month deployment there.
The pressure is on for the Philippines to replace a vessel it pulled out from a hotly contested shoal in the South China Sea – or risk losing a strategic area in its maritime dispute with Beijing.
The Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua has left Escoda Shoal, a disputed area in the South China Sea, following a five-month deployment, according to a Sunday announcement from the Philippine government. This mission, described as successful by National Maritime Council (NMC) Chairperson and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, marks the conclusion of an extensive operation.
The U.S. Air Force revealed last week that its drone units have been training for an “unmanned” war in the contested South China Sea as regional tensions continue to rise.
Military leaders from the U.S. and China met in Beijing for routine talks that only resumed in January after being suspended for two years as ties between the two countries soured. The meetings ended on Sunday and officials discussed ongoing issues such as Taiwan, the Russia-Ukraine war and clashes in the South China Sea.
A five-month standoff between Manila and Beijing over a disputed maritime feature in the South China Sea has entered a new phase after the Philippine Coast Guard flagship has withdrawn, according to ship spotters.
Two German naval vessels are en route from South Korea to the Philippines through the South China Sea in what analysts describe as a show of Berlin’s resolve to confront Chinese threats that now extend as far as Europe.
China will “crush” any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.
Twenty allies of the Philippines are meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York amid fears that one “wrong move” could escalate tensions in the South China Sea.
A senior US military official warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders.
China called on the Philippines to “seriously consider the future” of a relationship “at a crossroads” in a Monday commentary published by the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the governing Communist Party, amid tensions in the South China Sea.
Experts explained that a rare combination of factors intensified Yagi’s unprecedented strength, including active monsoons in the South China Sea, the strong moisture injected from tropical cyclones, as well as the favorable atmospheric conditions.
The PM’s comments came after the publication of a leaked Chinese diplomatic note ordering the country to cease exploration activities in the South China Sea.
Malaysia will continue its oil exploration in the South China Sea, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said, as his government launches a probe into the source of a leaked protest note sent to the country’s embassy in Beijing by China’s foreign ministry.
Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry called Wednesday for a police investigation into a leaked diplomatic note from China over the South China Sea dispute.
China’s recently increased maritime and aerial operations near the Philippines, Japan, and Taiwan is part of Beijing’s attempt to gauge the United States’ commitment to supporting allies in the Indo-Pacific region, say analysts. They noted the increased activity comes as Tokyo and Washington gear up for elections in the coming weeks.
China has doubled down on its claim that the Philippines is to blame for the latest coast guard collision over the weekend at what has emerged as the latest hot spot in the neighbors’ escalating territorial dispute.
China urged the European Union to be “objective and fair” and careful with words and actions on issues in the South China Sea, after the bloc remarked on an incident that occurred over the weekend.
China and the Philippines accused each other of causing a collision between their two vessels Saturday in the latest flareup of tensions over disputed waters and maritime features in the South China Sea.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met for a second day in Beijing Wednesday, holding talks that touched on topics that included a potential meeting between the two countries’ heads of state and tensions in the South China Sea.
The U.S. military is open to the possibility of escorting Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea, depending on consultations under the allies’ 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Tuesday amid a spike in hostilities between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waters.
A Malaysian warship has sunk in the South China Sea near its southern coast after suffering “severe flooding” caused by leaks on Sunday, the country’s naval service announced
The Philippines and China clashed in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Aug 25 over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen, the latest in a series of sea and air confrontations in the strategic waterway.
The Philippines accused China on Saturday of recently firing flares at one of its aircraft as it patroled over the South China Sea.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Beijing next week and meet with top Chinese officials, as Washington seeks to reinforce lines of communication with its foremost adversary and worries mount about Chinese interference in the U.S. election.
The Senate is likely to boost funding for the armed forces and the Philippine Coast Guard next year to beef up Manila’s defenses amid growing tensions with China, a senator said on Thursday.
An ex-mayor accused of spying for China and having ties with criminal syndicates has fled the Philippines, stirring fury.
China on Friday reiterated that it would take “forceful measures” to back its territorial claims after reports that the Philippines might deploy another of its large coast guard ships to a hotspot in the South China Sea.
China’s Coast Guard said a Philippine vessel that had ignored its repeated warnings “deliberately collided” with a Chinese vessel in an “unprofessional and dangerous” manner, according to statements on Monday.
Vietnam’s top leader To Lam arrived in China on Sunday for a three-day visit, according to Chinese state media, which Beijing’s foreign ministry has said will include meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.
China on Friday reiterated that it would take “forceful measures” to back its territorial claims after reports that the Philippines might deploy another of its large coast guard ships to a hotspot in the South China Sea.
Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday called for the rule of law to be upheld in resolving the issues surrounding the South China Sea.
The U.S. Navy’s deployment of new extremely long-range air-to-air missiles in the Indo-Pacific could erase China’s advantage in aerial reach, experts say, part of an intensifying focus on projecting power amid high tensions in the region.
China has admitted for the first time that Hong Kong-flagged container ship Newnew Polar Bear is responsible for the damage inflicted to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline in October.
Chinese fighter jets recently made a “dangerous” move against a Philippine Air Force (PAF) plane, firing flares into its path as it was flying over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine military chief said on Saturday.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday condemned Chinese air force actions in waters of the South China Sea claimed by both countries, calling the actions “unjustified, illegal and reckless”.
The Philippine military strongly condemned “dangerous and provocative actions” by China’s air force, while the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it acted in a professional and legal manner.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) will send a ship to visit Vietnam before the end of 2024 as Manila and Hanoi continue to enhance their maritime cooperation due to shared threats and despite overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
Canada and Australia, expressing alarm at China’s claims over the disputed waters of the South China Sea, on Thursday said they would increase their military and defense industry cooperation.
Two of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy Type 056 Jiangdao-class corvettes and a Type 054A Jiangkai II-class frigate were observed monitoring the international flotilla, according to USNI News. The daily news service of the U.S. Naval Institute reported that sailors were told not to take personal cellphones onto their ship’s flight deck due to the Chinese presence.
Hanoi and Manila are set to hold their first joint maritime drills as part of a four-day goodwill visit by the Vietnam Coast Guard, seen as the latest in a series of steps between the Southeast Asian neighbours to peacefully settle their maritime disputes amid Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea. Observers say, however, that in the event of any escalation of tensions with China, joint action between the Philippines and Vietnam remains unlikely as Hanoi’s defence policy prohibits it from forming alliances to oppose another nation.
The United States, Australia, Canada and the Philippines held air and naval maneuvers Wednesday in a show of force that they said aimed to promote the rule of law in the disputed South China Sea, where China has increasingly asserted its territorial claims.
It featured the USS Mobile (LCS 26) and the BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS16).
The exercise included a series of events designed to enhance communication and operational coordination between the two navies.
The Philippines and Germany agreed a new defense deal Sunday as Manila seeks to bolster its diplomatic support to counter Beijing’s vast maritime claims in the South China Sea.
The Philippines has carried out substantial reinforcements on a grounded World War II-era ship in the contested South China Sea, enough to make the outpost at the centre of tensions with Beijing last at least another decade, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The Philippine and Japanese navies held their first joint exercise on Friday in the South China Sea, as the two US allies boost security ties in the face of China’s growing pressure.
A Vietnamese coast guard vessel is en route to the Philippines for joint training exercises, Hanoi said, the first such exchange between the countries in dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.
Top diplomats from “the Quad” group of nations on Monday pledged to boost maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region as they criticized what they called the “militarization” of the disputed South China Sea, in a move seen as targeting China’s growing assertiveness in the strategic waterway.
The Philippines said it had successfully resupplied troops stationed at a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, a week after reaching a deal with China over the shoal at the center of sharply rising tensions between the neighbors.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to celebrate the Biden administration’s expanded commitment to Asia and the Indo-Pacific region as he visits Laos, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia. Blinken has modified his travel schedule twice since the announcement of the trip, and is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi but has no plans to see Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Despite assertions that the decision by President Joe Biden will not impact the administration’s foreign policies, questions remain about his successor’s priorities and future.
The Philippines has reached a “provisional arrangement” with China regarding its resupply missions to the contested Second Thomas Shoal. The agreement was not disclosed, but Manila insists it will continue to assert its rights in the South China Sea. The deal was done in good faith and the Philippines remains ready to implement it, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) stated.
The Government of the Philippines announced that it has reached an understanding and provisional arrangement with China on resupply missions to the Philippine naval ship Sierra Madre on the Second Thomas Shoal. The agreement follows an escalation of tensions between Beijing and Manila in recent months over the disputed territory.
China’s cutting-edge electronic warfare (EW) capabilities are transforming the balance of power in the South China Sea, as shown by a recent encounter between US and Chinese forces.
The navies of China and Russia are holding a joint exercise in the South China Sea and a joint maritime patrol in the Pacific Ocean in moves experts said on Sunday aim to enhance military cooperation and safeguard peace and stability.
Reports of aggressive and dangerous conduct by Chinese vessels in the fiercely contested South China Sea have surged over the past 17 months, as tensions mount in one of Asia’s biggest flashpoints.
The United States on Friday renewed its call on China to stop its aggressive actions in the South China Sea, saying a broader web of security alliances has emerged to preserve the rule of law in the disputed waters.
China’s coast guard said it had on humanitarian grounds “allowed” the Philippines to evacuate a person who had fallen ill on a rusting warship beached on the Second Thomas Shoal, a claim Manila’s coast guard said was “ridiculous”.
China said on Monday “illegal” beaching of Philippine warships at the Nansha islands in the South China Sea had “gravely damaged” the coral reef ecosystem in the area, as both countries tussle over disputed territory at atolls in the vast waterway.
Each month, South China Sea NewsWire identifies and features the most crucial articles on political, economic, and other developments in the South China Sea and surrounding regions. We provide top-level summaries of articles for easy access to selected news, conferences, podcasts, videos and integrated media. We offer a reading experience that favors discovery over opinion. South China Sea NewsWire is powered by article data from the Perigon News API. Perigon’s AI-enriched technology provides structured, intelligently classified news data in real time from over 80,000 global sources.