Author: Carlyle A. Thayer, UNSW Canberra
Chinese civilian maritime surveillance vessels carried out a number of aggressive activities in parts of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam in early 2011, raising regional tensions and sparking concern in the US and throughout the region about maritime security.
This concern now seems largely abated, after diplomatic efforts produced a somewhat unexpected positive development. Read more…
Author: Vikram Nehru, Carnegie Endowment
Tensions continue to rise in the South China Sea following the Obama administration’s foreign policy ‘pivot’ toward Asia late last year.
There are many reasons for the pivot, but a principal motivation was to protect the freedom of navigation in the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea. Read more…
Author: Arief Ramayandi, ADB
The slow resolution of the European debt crisis has evolved into a liquidity problem which threatens the global financial system.
And these long-drawn-out efforts to address the sovereign debt problems have heightened uncertainties about resolving the crisis and induced speculative activities, threatening the survival of many European banks. Read more…
Author: John Hemmings, CSIS, Honolulu
At both the APEC and ASEAN summits, attempts were made to deal with the building impasse over the South China Sea issue.
Tensions over the region have grown steadily since 2009, after China, Vietnam and Malaysia submitted their respective claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China’s naval exercises in the region and apparent willingness to showcase its military capabilities in favour of its claims have also exacerbated these tensions. Read more…
Author: Liu Shuguang, Ocean University of China
China’s central government approved Guangdong Province’s plan to build a national-level marine economic-development zone on 20 July, establishing a clear trend in this direction.
Guangdong’s is the third plan approved so far this year, following those for Shandong and Zhejiang. Read more…
Author: Andy Yee, Hong Kong
Geopolitical tensions continue to simmer in the South China Sea after the Obama administration’s declaration last year of a US ‘return to Asia’ stirred up regional dynamics.
Now, non-claimant states India and Japan are entering into the fray. Read more…
Author: Andy Yee, Hong Kong
At a time when Chinese power is inchoate, Vietnam and the Philippines are becoming increasingly assertive in the South China Sea.
China has tried both the ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ approach, and neither has been successful. Read more…
Authors: Celia Reyes and Aubrey Tabuga, PIDS
Despite the Philippine economy having enjoyed one of its best growth periods in recent years, the poverty rate continues to rise, putting a strain on achieving the Millennium Development Goal targets the country has vowed to achieve come 2015.
Inequitable growth across sectors and geographical units combined with various natural and man-made crises have produced some damaging results. Likewise, poverty-reduction programs designed without taking into account the characteristics of poverty have not helped. Read more…
Author: Takashi Terada, Waseda University
ASEAN’s function is often described as being limited to a ‘talk shop’ that merely provides venues where ministers and leaders from larger states join together to exchange views on regional security and economic issues.
So long as the so-called ‘ASEAN Way’ — which informally stipulates non-intervention, non-binding and consensus-based decision-making approaches to regional cooperation — is maintained, ASEAN’s major role will not go beyond hosting the ‘talk shop’. Yet the talk shop’s value could be enhanced if delegates discussed the hard issues, regardless of whether any binding obligations ensued. Read more…
Author: Daljit Singh, ISEAS
The outcome of discussions on the South China Sea issue at the 18th ARF meeting in Bali on 23 July and the preceding officials’ meetings was positive.
Importantly, ASEAN and China agreed on guidelines to implement the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct (DoC) of Parties in the South China Sea. Read more…
Author: Aileen S.P. Baviera, RSIS
In the last several months, a number of incidents occurred that highlight what appears to be a growing willingness on the part of China to use its armed strength to pressure and influence rival claimants, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, in the disputed South China Sea.
In February, there were reported incidents of Filipino fishermen being threatened and fired on by Chinese vessels. On 2 March 2011, two Chinese patrol boats confronted a Philippine oil exploration vessel, MV Veritas Voyager, and ordered it to cease activities in the Reed Bank area, which they said was under Chinese jurisdiction. Read more…
Author: Fenna Egberink, the Netherlands
Tensions over the overlapping claims in the South China Sea (SCS) have mounted in the past months, with hostilities accelerating since the beginning of June.
The row between China, Vietnam and the Philippines has urged current ASEAN chair, Indonesia, to step up. Read more…
Author: Jennifer Chen, Georgetown University
How do we resolve the territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS)? There is no clear answer, but the first step to settling any argument is to examine all sides of the story.
Media outlets tend to depict China as the aggressor infringing on the sovereign rights of other nations.
Read more…
Author: Joel Atkinson, Monash University
The Asia Pacific is in muted tumult. China has seized on perceived changing regional power equations following the financial crisis and attendant economic stagnation in the US, and adopted a harsher and more insisting tone over its interests.
Taken aback, many regional countries have come to view China in a new, more ominous, light and have moved to embrace (or re-embrace) the US. Read more…
Author: Chengxin Pan, Deakin University
On British imperial navigational charts, much of the area now commonly known as the South China Sea was called ‘Dangerous Ground’, its small islands, rocks, reefs and low-tide elevations once seen as mere navigational hazards, best avoided.
Now boasting some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, this region — dubbed by some as ‘a new Persian Gulf’ and ‘a hydrocarbons Eldorado’ — is a focal point of ongoing sovereignty disputes among its adjacent countries. Read more…
