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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
In November 2013, China established an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea. As a result of this action, the South Korean public became alerted to two significant issues that had previously been unintentionally ignored. The first was the recognition of the strategic value of a part of the East China Sea, […]
Russian media reports that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged at a Monday meeting to do “whatever it takes” to settle the Kuril Islands issue to conclude a peace treaty with Russia. Russia and Japan have disagreed on the status of four islands since the end of World War II. In the 1951 San Francisco […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Most think of maritime Asia in the context of the Western Pacific littoral, the long swath of near shore waters that run from the Russian Pacific coast to Southeast Asia. Or, that maritime Asia is defined by the competing claims in the East and South China Seas and the rise of the Chinese Navy. Maritime […]
Five years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that eminent historians and political scientists would draw analogies between territorial issues in the East and South China Seas, and the Balkans on the eve of the First World War. Yet in the very recent past, maritime claims, resource competition, and contentious international arbitration in the […]
The stakes in Asia’s maritime security tensions are high and getting higher. As each year the region moves closer to the global center of gravity in economic weight, military power and demographics, so too the consequences of any strategic breakdown among its powers become more grave. Accordingly, it is more important than ever to work […]
The center of gravity in world affairs has shifted to Asia. No other region will do more to determine whether the 21st century will be a peaceful and prosperous one. For this reason, it is imperative that Pacific nations do everything in their power to reduce the risk of inadvertent or accidental conflict. The maritime […]