China Archives | Page 5 of 5 | Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

China: Building Confidence while Setting Expectations

By Bonnie Glaser and Chris Johnson | January 7, 2015 | Categories: China, Strategy, United States

Where China is concerned, successful implementation of the rebalance hinges upon a recognition in both capitals that neither country can hope to organize the future order in East Asia without the other. Chinese and U.S. leaderships say they subscribe to this axiom, but their respective behavior suggests that both sides seem reluctant to truly eschew […]

Managing Crisis in the East China Sea

By Tetsuo Kotani | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, Japan, Year in Review

In November, Tokyo and Beijing agreed to disagree on their views on territory and history to resume talks on crisis communication mechanisms in the East China Sea. Tokyo and Beijing reached a common understanding of its structure and methods that a hotline should employ. There is an urgent need for such a mechanism due to […]

A Year for Optimism in the South China Sea?

By Nicholas Khoo | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, Philippines, South China Sea, Year in Review

In recent weeks, the international politics of the South China Sea has seen a number of encouraging developments. At their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November, Benigno Aquino claimed to have had a “meeting of minds” with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Also at the APEC […]

Danger at the Second Thomas Shoal

By Bonnie Glaser | December 23, 2014 | Categories: ADIZ, China, Philippines, Year in Review

The South China Sea is likely to persist as a source of tension both between China and its Southeast Asian maritime neighbors, and between China and the United States in 2015. China’s land reclamation activities, which are taking place at six of the seven reefs under Chinese control in the Spratly Island chain, will advance […]

ASEAN’s Domestic Politics: Rule of Law on the Sea

By Ernest Bower | December 23, 2014 | Categories: ASEAN, China, South China Sea

When the Philippines announced its intent in January 2013 to file a case against China at a tribunal in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, many ASEAN countries remained silent or even worried out loud that Manila was “rolling the dice” and would be the subject of Beijing’s wrath. The mood in Southeast Asia has changed. […]

Intense Maneuvers at the Hague

By Matthew Waxman | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, International Law, Philippines, South China Sea, Year in Review

In 2013, the Philippines instituted arbitration proceedings in the Hague against China over disputed South China Sea maritime claims – and in doing so it challenged legally of China’s nine-dash line claims over much of that area. Both states are parties to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allows for […]

A 2015 Resolution for Risk Reduction

By Rory Medcalf | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, Japan, United States, Year in Review

In tracking Asia’s maritime tensions in 2015, what I will be looking for above all is evidence that China is actually following through on its newfound commitments to risk-reduction and crisis-management. For much of the time since Chinese maritime assertiveness increased, from 2009 onwards, the guiding attitude seemed to be that Chinese forces were willing […]

The Coming Year in Maritime Asia

By Gary Roughead | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, Indo-Pacific Region, Japan, Year in Review

Maritime Asia will be active and more pacific in the coming year. Maritime trade will continue apace with tens of millions of shipping containers and millions of barrels of petroleum products moving on Asian sea lanes. That feeding of the Asian and global economies will be taken for granted, but there are three categories to […]

Oil Rig 981 Friction in the South China Sea

By Zhu Feng | December 23, 2014 | Categories: China, Vietnam, Year in Review

The friction between China and Vietnam over the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 (in Vietnamese: Hải Dương-981) was a major point of South China Sea tension in 2014. The stakes were not so big that that the parties resorted to military action, but this episode was an important sign that Hanoi does not intend to swallow the […]

Beijing’s and Washington’s Dueling Papers

By Gregory Poling | December 15, 2014 | Categories: China, Philippines, South China Sea, United States, Vietnam

Beijing has reached its December 15 deadline to submit its defense in the arbitration case against its South China Sea claims brought by the Philippines. That case, brought under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea’s (UNCLOS) compulsory dispute mechanism, is summarized here. The Chinese government has no intention of taking part in […]

Paper Melee in Philippines v. China Arbitration

By Jay Batongbacal | December 15, 2014 | Categories: China, Philippines, South China Sea, United States, Vietnam

Today’s deadline for the submission of China’s counter-memorial in the Philippines v. China arbitration has created a four-cornered melee of positions papers over one of the key issues in dispute, the legality of China’s nine-dash line claim. The United States weighed in first on December 5th with the release of its Limits in the Seas […]

Fiery Cross Reef and Strategic Implications for Taiwan

By Yann-huei Song | December 10, 2014 | Categories: China, South China Sea, Taiwan

According to a satellite imagery reported by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is building an airstrip on of Fiery Cross Reef. The United States, Philippines, and Vietnam have all voiced official objections to PRC activities. Unsurprisingly, PRC officials dismiss these criticisms, arguing that Fiery Cross Reef development is intended to […]

Assessing U.S. Policy in the South China Sea

By Michael McDevitt | December 10, 2014 | Categories: China, South China Sea, United States

A recent CNA Corporation report assessed current U.S. policy on the South China Sea and found it to be comprehensive and balanced. United States policy focuses on creating stability by exhorting all parties to follow the rules of international law. It also explicitly defines how Washington would like conflicts to be solved. Moreover, it includes […]

The Defense Authorization Act and China’s Maritime Moves

By Murray Hiebert | December 10, 2014 | Categories: China, South China Sea, United States

In a sign of growing congressional concern about China’s increased assertiveness in the South and East China seas, Congress has included a provision in the draft fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Department of Defense to report to key congressional committees an assessment of China’s moves to affect the current state of […]

Land Reclamation: A South China Sea Game Changer

By Tran Truong Thuy | December 10, 2014 | Categories: China, South China Sea

It is widely reported that China is conducting land reclamation on six of its seven occupied features in the Spratlys in the South China Sea, transforming the submerged reefs and rocks into full-pledged islands with airstrips, harbors and other military and civilian structures. Once reclamation works are completed, Fiery Cross Reef alone will be at […]

Notes from the Xiangshan Forum

By Bonnie Glaser | November 25, 2014 | Categories: China, Strategy

In an effort to strengthen China’s regional leadership role and promote its new Asian security concept, China’s military convened the fifth Xiangshan Forum, November 20-22. Previously a venue held in alternate years for foreign scholars and the PLA to conduct exchanges on international security issues, this year’s conference was upgraded to an annual Track 1.5 […]

China’s ADIZ at One Year: International Legal Issues

By Matthew Waxman | November 25, 2014 | Categories: ADIZ, China, East China Sea

This week marks a year since China abruptly declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) covering a large area of the East China Sea, including islands the legal possession of which China disputes with Japan. Especially because China has sent signals that it might enact another such zone in the South China Sea, this anniversary […]

China’s First ADIZ Decision: One Year Later

By Zhu Feng | November 25, 2014 | Categories: ADIZ, China, East China Sea

China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) announcement on November 23, 2013 was one year ago, but frictions around the decision still remain. Tokyo insists that it rejects the ADIZ, and no Japanese civilian flights file their passage as requested. The United States has toned down its initial opposition, but no U.S. military planes obey Chinese […]

Reviewing the First Year of China’s ADIZ: A Japanese Perspective

By Tetsuo Kotani | November 25, 2014 | Categories: ADIZ, China, East China Sea, Japan

When China’s Defense Ministry made an announcement of an “East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone” on November 23, 2013, the fundamental question was about its legal nature. The announcement provided that all aircraft, “regardless of its destination,” shall comply with the procedures within the ADIZ and that the Chinese military will take “defensive emergency […]

Xi Meets Abe: Skillful Diplomacy but Tensions Remain

By Michael Green | November 11, 2014 | Categories: China, Japan

On November 10, 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Xi Jinping of China held a bilateral meeting on the margins of APEC in Beijing. Though a summit meeting between these two Asian giants should be a matter of course given their economic interdependence and rising geopolitical tensions, the Chinese side had refused […]

A Step Forward in US-China Military Ties: Two CBM Agreements

By Bonnie Glaser | November 11, 2014 | Categories: China, United States

In 1998 the United States and China established the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) to avoid accidents when their respective maritime and air forces operate in close proximity. Sixteen years of negotiations yielded little progress, until now. Two agreements on military confidence building measures were inked at the US-China summit in Beijing: notification of major […]