The Chinese military held a new combat readiness exercise around a flashpoint with the Philippines in the South China Sea, its Southern Theater Command said, adding to a number of such exercises that Beijing has been conducting in the region.
The command on Thursday “organized naval and air forces to carry out combat readiness patrols in the territorial waters and airspace of China’s Huangyan Island and surrounding areas,” it said in a statement, referring to the disputed Scarborough Shoal by its Chinese name.
Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc, has served as a traditional fishing ground for generations of local fishermen. It lies well inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone, just 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from the main island of Luzon.
China, however, claims historical rights over the shoal as it is inside the so-called nine-dash line it displays on its maps. Vessels from both countries have been confronting each other here.
Since the beginning of the month, Southern Command’s troops have been holding drills around the shoal in order to “further strengthen the control of relevant sea and air areas, resolutely defend national sovereignty, and security and resolutely maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea,” it added.
The Chinese military also released a video clip depicting Thursday’s combat patrol, in which at least two warships and several aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, were seen operating in the Scarborough area.
The Philippine military has yet to react to the Chinese patrols.
Chinese military aircraft during the combat patrol over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Feb. 27, 2025.(PLA Southern Theater Command)
Last week, Manila accused a Chinese military helicopter of flying dangerously within 3 meters (10 feet) of a Philippine aircraft over the shoal, saying the “reckless action posed a serious risk to the safety” of the Filipino pilots and passengers.
China ramping up military operations
Also on Thursday, the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA,- completed a four-day live-fire exercise in the Gulf of Tonkin, territory shared with Vietnam. The exercise was announced just as Hanoi released a map of territorial borders in the gulf.
On Wednesday, Beijing unilaterally and unexpectedly designated an area for live-fire shooting just 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) from the Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung, prompting the island’s military to immediately dispatch naval, air and land forces while condemning the move.
Taiwan’s ministry of defense on Friday said Beijing “has been escalating its military threats,” and has become “the biggest troublemaker” in the Indo-Pacific.
The live-fire shooting has yet to take place, but analysts warned against the dangerous practice of conducting military exercises without giving notice. A similar incident happened last weekend in the waters between Australia and New Zealand.
China’s frigate Sanya (574) during the combat patrol at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Feb. 27, 2025.(PLA Southern Theater Command)
“The live-fire exercises were a display to show that China’s military forces could cut off the air and sea links between Australia and New Zealand at any time, with no warning,” wrote Anne-Marie Brady, a professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
They were “a demonstration of China’s growing sea power in the Southwest Pacific and meant to normalize the PLA presence there,” Brady wrote in The Diplomat.
The past week’s exercises around the region are a clear example of saber-rattling, according to regional specialist Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales.
“Given China’s continued bullying of the Philippines, Beijing is sending a message to regional states as well as the Trump administration that it will defend its sovereign rights and interests whenever they are challenged,” he told Radio Free Asia.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
The Chinese military held a new combat readiness exercise around a flashpoint with the Philippines in the South China Sea, its Southern Theater Command said, adding to a number of such exercises that Beijing has been conducting in the region.
The command on Thursday “organized naval and air forces to carry out combat readiness patrols in the territorial waters and airspace of China’s Huangyan Island and surrounding areas,” it said in a statement, referring to the disputed Scarborough Shoal by its Chinese name.
Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc, has served as a traditional fishing ground for generations of local fishermen. It lies well inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone, just 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from the main island of Luzon.
China, however, claims historical rights over the shoal as it is inside the so-called nine-dash line it displays on its maps. Vessels from both countries have been confronting each other here.
Since the beginning of the month, Southern Command’s troops have been holding drills around the shoal in order to “further strengthen the control of relevant sea and air areas, resolutely defend national sovereignty, and security and resolutely maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea,” it added.
The Chinese military also released a video clip depicting Thursday’s combat patrol, in which at least two warships and several aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, were seen operating in the Scarborough area.
The Philippine military has yet to react to the Chinese patrols.
Chinese military aircraft during the combat patrol over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Feb. 27, 2025.(PLA Southern Theater Command)
Last week, Manila accused a Chinese military helicopter of flying dangerously within 3 meters (10 feet) of a Philippine aircraft over the shoal, saying the “reckless action posed a serious risk to the safety” of the Filipino pilots and passengers.
China ramping up military operations
Also on Thursday, the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA,- completed a four-day live-fire exercise in the Gulf of Tonkin, territory shared with Vietnam. The exercise was announced just as Hanoi released a map of territorial borders in the gulf.
On Wednesday, Beijing unilaterally and unexpectedly designated an area for live-fire shooting just 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) from the Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung, prompting the island’s military to immediately dispatch naval, air and land forces while condemning the move.
Taiwan’s ministry of defense on Friday said Beijing “has been escalating its military threats,” and has become “the biggest troublemaker” in the Indo-Pacific.
The live-fire shooting has yet to take place, but analysts warned against the dangerous practice of conducting military exercises without giving notice. A similar incident happened last weekend in the waters between Australia and New Zealand.
China’s frigate Sanya (574) during the combat patrol at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Feb. 27, 2025.(PLA Southern Theater Command)
“The live-fire exercises were a display to show that China’s military forces could cut off the air and sea links between Australia and New Zealand at any time, with no warning,” wrote Anne-Marie Brady, a professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
They were “a demonstration of China’s growing sea power in the Southwest Pacific and meant to normalize the PLA presence there,” Brady wrote in The Diplomat.
The past week’s exercises around the region are a clear example of saber-rattling, according to regional specialist Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales.
“Given China’s continued bullying of the Philippines, Beijing is sending a message to regional states as well as the Trump administration that it will defend its sovereign rights and interests whenever they are challenged,” he told Radio Free Asia.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
Vietnam’s island reclamation activities in the South China Sea made headlines in 2024 with a record area of land created and several airstrips planned on the new islands.
The Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, said that between November 2023 and June 2024, Hanoi created 280 hectares (692 acres) of new land across 10 of 27 features it occupies in the Spratly archipelago.
“Three years from when it first began, Vietnam is still surprising observers with the ever-increasing scope of its dredging and landfill in the Spratly Islands,” the think tank said.
Hanoi’s island building program stemmed from a Communist Party resolution in 2007 on maritime strategy toward the year 2020, according to Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The resolution set out an integrated strategy to develop coastal areas, an exclusive economic zone, and 27 land features in the South China Sea with the objective that this area would contribute between 53% and 55% of the gross domestic product by 2020, Thayer said.
China has built an airfield, buildings and other structures on the Spratly Islands’ Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea, Oct. 25, 2022.(Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
It was only in 2021 that Vietnam began a modest program of landfill and infrastructure construction on its features in the Spratly Islands, Thayer said.
By that time, China had completed the construction of its “Big Three” artificial islands in the South China Sea – Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs – and equipped them with runways and military facilities.
The island-building program focuses mainly on the so-called integrated marine economy, the analyst told Radio Free Asia, noting that there are only modest defenses such as pillboxes, trenches and gun emplacements on the newly developed features.
Risk of tension
Vietnam has long been wary of causing tension with China but its increasing assertiveness had led to a re-think in Hanoi.
“Vietnam has not placed major weapon systems on its land features that would threaten China’s artificial islands,” Thayer said.
“But no doubt the rise in Chinese aggressiveness against the Philippines after the election of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reinforced Vietnam’s determination not to leave its island features in the Spratlys exposed.”
“Vietnamese occupation also serves to deny China the opportunity to occupy these features as China did when it took control of unoccupied Mischief Reef belonging to the Philippines in 1984,” he added.
(AFP)
Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. navy captain based in Hawaii, said that on the surface, Vietnam and China appeared to have strong, positive relations but “at its roots, the relationship is one of distrust and for Vietnam, pragmatism.”
“Vietnam has noticed that the PRC is most aggressive around undefended or uninhabited islands and islets,” Schuster said, referring to China by its official name the People’s Republic of China.
“Hanoi therefore sees expanding, hardening and expanding the garrisons on its own islands as a means of deterring PRC aggression.”
Yet Vietnam’s island building activities have been met with criticism from some neighboring countries.
Malaysia sent a rare letter of complaint to Vietnam in October 2024 over its development of an airstrip on Barque Canada reef – a feature that Malaysia also claims in the South China Sea.
Vietnam has built an airstrip on Barque Canada Reef in South China Sea, seen Feb. 2, 2025.(Planet Labs)
In July 2023, the pro-China Manila Times published two reports on what it called “Vietnam’s militarization of the South China Sea,” citing leaked masterplans on island development from the Vietnamese defense ministry.
Shortly after the publication, a group of Filipinos staged a protest in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Manila, vandalizing the Vietnamese flag. The incident did not escalate but soured the usually friendly relationship between the two neighbors.
Reasonable response
The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN has long been negotiating with China on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea and the consensus is to observe the status quo in the disputed waterway and maintain peace.
Azmi Hassan, a senior fellow at Malaysia’s Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research, explained that status quo means “there shouldn’t be any new reclamation, especially in the Spratly or Paracel Islands as new reclamation could create some instability.”
“But in the case of Vietnam, it’s very difficult to stop them because the Chinese have been doing it for many years and China has the longest airstrip and the biggest reclamation on Mischief Reef,” Hassan said.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel maneuver their rigid hull inflatable boat next to a Vietnamese coast guard ship during a joint exercise off Bataan in the South China Sea on Aug. 9, 2024.(Ted Aljibe/AFP)
Malaysia also built an airstrip on Pulau Layang-Layang, known internationally as Swallow Reef, which is claimed by several countries including Vietnam.
“So it’s very hard to criticize Vietnam because Malaysia has done it, China has done it, and the Philippines has been doing it for quite some time,” the analyst said.
Greg Poling, AMTI’s director, told RFA that in his opinion, Hanoi’s goal with the development of features in the South China Sea “appears to be to allow it to better patrol its exclusive economic zone by sea and air in the face of China’s persistent presence.”
“That seems a reasonable and proportionate response,” he said.
The U.S. government has taken no public position on the issue but the Obama administration did push for a construction freeze by all parties, Poling said.
Then-U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Hanoi in June 2015 and discussed the issue during a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Phung Quang Thanh and, according to the transcript of a press briefing.
Carter was told that “the government of Vietnam is considering … a permanent halt to reclamation and further militarization” of the new islands.
“But that was when the prime goal was to stop China’s island building,” Poling said. “Obviously that didn’t work so now I think the U.S. and other parties understand that Vietnam is not likely to agree to unilaterally restrain itself when China has already done it.”
In 2015, Vietnam still insisted that it was only carrying out activities “to enhance and to consolidate the islands that are under our sovereignty.”
In the late Gen. Phung Quang Thanh’s words: “We do not expand those islands, we just consolidate to prevent the soil erosion because of the waves, to improve the livelihood of our people and of our personnel who are working and living there.”
“And for the submerged features, we have built small houses and buildings, which can accommodate only three people, and we do not expand those features. And the scope and the characteristics of those features are just civilian in nature,” Thanh told Carter.
Bad investment?
Fast forward 10 years, and Vietnam has reclaimed a total area of about half of what China has built up and among the 10 largest features in the Spratlys, five are being developed by Hanoi with an unknown, but no doubt massive budget.
The island building program, however, has been received positively by the Vietnamese public.
Pearson Reef on March 23, 2022 and Feb. 5, 2025.(RFA/Planet Labs)
Photos and video clips from the now popular Bai Thuyen Chai, Dao Tien Nu and Phan Vinh – or Barque Canada, Tennent and Pearson reefs respectively – have been shared and admired by millions of social media users as proof of Vietnamese military might and economic success even if the construction comes at a big environmental cost.
South China Sea researcher Dinh Kim Phuc told RFA Vietnamese that despite the environmental damage, Vietnam’s actions “must happen” and are necessary for “strategic defense” as long as China does not quit its expansionist ambitions.
However, some experts have warned against the effectiveness of such artificial islands from a military standpoint.
“Like Chinese-built islands, Vietnamese built islands are, by nature, small areas of land that are difficult to defend against modern land-attack missile capabilities, and given their low altitude, they are at the mercy of salt water corrosion of structures and systems ashore,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst in defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“So as with Chinese experience, the Vietnamese will also struggle to base military capabilities on these islands for extended periods of time,” Davis told RFA.
“In the longer term, they are also going to be vulnerable to the effects of climate change – most notably, sea level rise, which could quickly swamp a low-level landmass and see it become unusable.”
“These challenges are why I don’t worry too much about those Chinese-built bases in the South China Sea, as I think Beijing has made a bad investment there,” the analyst added.
AMTI’s Poling said rising sea levels and storm surge would threaten all the islands “but it is something that both China and Vietnam are likely able to cope with by continually refilling the islands and building up higher sea walls.”
More than 1,000 civilians have fled Rakhine state’s capital Sittwe and nearby areas in western Myanmar, fearing heavy artillery attacks as tensions rise between junta forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group that has advanced on junta positions, residents said Friday.
Ongoing exchanges of fire between junta soldiers and the Arakan Army, or AA, in nearby villages, have prompted residents to seek safe havens out of concern that they might be hit by bombs, sniper fire, drone strikes or air strikes, should the conflict escalate.
Of the 17 townships in Rakhine state, 14 are under the control of the AA, leaving only three — Sittwe, the military council’s regional headquarters, Kyaukphyu and Munaung — still in the hands of the military junta.
A Myanmar junta armored vehicle burns after Arakan Army forces attacked a column that left Sittwe in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Feb. 28, 2024.(Arakan Army Info Desk)
Observers believe that the AA soon could launch an offensive against Sittwe.
And because of this, civilians say they fear getting trapped in the crossfire of heavy artillery used by junta battalions based in Sittwe if the AA strikes.
Sittwe is crucial for the junta — which seized control of Myanmar in a 2021 coup d’état— not only as a source of much-needed revenue and foreign currency, but also for its role in Myanmar’s oil and gas trade via the Indian Ocean.
Besides Sittwe, people in Rathedaung, Pauktaw and Ponnagyun —townships close to Sittwe — are also leaving their homes out of fear of direct attacks, said a Rathedaung resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
An aerial view of Sittwe township in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, May 15, 2023.(AP)
“Some already fled from Sittwe township, but now they find themselves forced to flee again, adding to their hardships,” the person said. “Many are struggling due to a lack of warm clothing for winter and severe shortages of basic necessities after being displaced.”
Junta fortifies positions
The junta’s blockade of transportation routes in Rakhine state, which has made travel for displaced civilians difficult, has compounded the situation, they said.
Sittwe residents told RFA that the AA has surrounded the city with a large number of troops while the military junta has fortified its positions, increasing its military presence with battalions outside the city, in areas of Sittwe, and at Sittwe University, in preparation for a defensive stand.
Additionally, thousands of Rohingya — a stateless ethnic group that predominantly follows Islam and resides in Rakhine state — have been given military training by the junta, sources said.
“The army is shooting; the navy is also shooting,” said a Sittwe resident. “People are afraid. They don’t know when the fighting will start.”
AA’s heavy artillery
The AA has already fired heavy artillery and used snipers. Local news reports on Jan. 27 indicated that daily exchanges of fire were occurring between the ethnic army and junta forces, including the use of attack drones.
Civilians displaced by armed conflict flee Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Jan. 29, 2025.(Wai Hun Aung)
Attempts by RFA to contact both AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha and junta spokesperson and Rakhine state attorney general Hla Thein for comment on the issue went unanswered by the time of publishing.
Human rights advocate Myat Tun said he believes the AA will resort to military action in Sittwe if political negotiations fail.
“The situation in Sittwe is escalating,” he said. “The AA is preparing to take military action if political solutions are not reached.”
Translated by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Myanmar.
The discovery of 46 illegal wells dug by Chinese migrants in the far western region of Xinjiang has intensified tension with Uyghur residents and disrupted the ecological balance of the region, people with knowledge of the situation told Radio Free Asia.
Fighting over water resources has been a source of friction for years between native Uyghurs and Chinese settlers in areas under the control of the state-run Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, or XPCC, called Bingtuan in Chinese.
Authorities investigated after residents in Korla, or Kuerle in Chinese, the second-largest city in Xinjiang, complained about the proliferation of wells on the outskirts of the city, a source in Xinjiang said, asking not to be identified for security reasons.
The wells, dug to grow cotton and vegetables, have drained vital underground reserves, he said.
A view of Korla, capital of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, in an undated photo.(AFP)
As a result, authorities discovered 46 illegally drilled holes this year alone in Korla, a policeman in Bayingholin prefecture’s Public Security Bureau who had participated in this case in its early phase told Radio Free Asia.
The residents accused of drilling the holes without a permit are from the 29th Battalion of the Bingtuan’s 2nd Division and Chinese settlers living in an economic development region on the outskirts of Korla, the officer said.
“We have been working on water management, water control, and identifying water wells since February, and we continue to work on those issues,” the police officer said.
Little accountability
But legal authorities have slowed down reviewing the cases, and the suspects were released after brief questioning, the Uyghur source said, with officials using “stability” and “unity” as excuses to let them go.
Authorities could not hold all perpetrators accountable because the activities likely involved Han Chinese, he said.
The Bingtuan is a state-run economic and paramilitary organization of mostly Han Chinese who develop the land, secure borders and maintain stability in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or XUAR, where about 12 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs live.
Made up of 14 divisions, the Bingtuan is one of the foremost institutions of Han dominance and marginalization of Uyghurs and other indigenous ethnic groups in the region, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
The well-drilling began in 2012 when demand for cotton surged, the Uyghur source told RFA.
Those who stole the water conducted their activities at night using advanced technology to pump it from a depth of 200 meters, or about 660 feet, he said.
“Since they drill these wells in a forested area, a place that people hardly go, it was hard to discover their illegal activities,” the Uyghur source said.
Sun Jinlong, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, attends a meeting of the Xinjiang delegation on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, March 12, 2019.(Jason Lee/Reuters)
It costs about 150,000 yuan (US$20,600) to drill a well and make it operational, he said, an amount that Uyghurs would not likely be able to come up with.
Though the issue has sparked friction many times before, the government has protected the Han Chinese residents, he said.
The policeman initially said there were some Uyghurs among those held responsible, but when pressed for further information, he said most of those who drilled the illegal wells were Chinese who had settled in the area, including Bingtuan workers.
Staff at relevant government organization in Korla contacted by RFA declined to answer questions, but did not deny that Chinese settlers there had stolen water.
Drying up the land
The growing dependence on groundwater in the Korla area since the 1990s has reached a level that is disrupting the ecological balance, said the source familiar with the situation.
“We must control this or it will lead to a further decline in groundwater levels,” he said. “In some areas of our protective forests, the Euphrates poplars are withering and drying up.”
Water drips from a leaking pipe on a hilltop overlooking Korla, an oil town on the edge of the Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Oct. 10, 2006.(Frederick J. Brown/AFP)
Peyzulla Zeydin, an ecological devastation researcher from Korla who now lives in the United States, told RFA that the misuse of water resources, including underground water, has severely impacted the region’s protective forests over time.
“In the 1990s, when we dug water wells, we could find water at just 10 meters,” he said. “Now, even at 30 meters, we can’t find water.”
“It’s getting worse because the underground water recycling system has been disrupted,” Zeydin said. “One of the main causes of the declining water levels is the growing population and the over-expansion of farmland. This has interrupted the natural underground water replenishment cycle.”
Zeydin said research indicates that the Bingtuan’s 1st Division battalions in the Korla area have overused and controlled the water resources there, leading to the drying up of Euphrates poplar trees along the lower streams of the Tarim River.
“The water level is dropping every day, and it has now reached a depth of 100 meters [330 feet],” he said.
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Shohret Hoshur for RFA Uyghur.
China on Friday added Japanese passport-holders to a newly expanded list of people eligible for unilateral visa-free entry on a trial basis, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian announced on Friday.
China also notified Japan that it will remove a buoy near the Diaoyu Islands, which are also claimed by Japan as the Senkaku Islands, Kyodo news reported.
Japan had objected to the installation of the buoy in the high seas over Japan’s southern continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean without explanation, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi calling the move “regrettable” in June.
The buoy was installed in high seas north of Japan’s southernmost Okinotori Island by the Chinese survey vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 during a voyage through Japan’s waters, ostensibly “for the purpose of scientific research and serving public good.”
A China Coast Guard vessel sails near the Japan Coast Guard vessel Kabira, left, off Uotsuri Island, one of a group of disputed islands called Senkaku Islands, also known in China as Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, on April 27, 2024.
The move prompted an angry reaction from Chinese “little pink” nationalists online.
“Only those at the bottom of society remember history,” complained one comment, while another said: “My heart hurt inexplicably when I read this.”
But state media reporting on the visa policy was buoyant, citing figures from Trip.com’s Japanese platform showing a surge of interest in Chinese destinations, with searches spiking by 112% within 30 minutes of the announcement.
Popular searches included Zhangjiajie (28.8%), Changbai Mountain (9.2%), Qingdao (11.1%), and Shanghai (9.6%), the Global Times newspaper reported.
Seeking foreign investment
Analysts said Beijing is keen seek further rapprochement with Japan, amid worsening tensions with the United States and an exodus of foreign investors.
“Japan is one of the most important foreign investors in China, particularly in technology,” Chen Li-fu, president of the Taiwan Professors Association, told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview, citing massive Japanese investment in Chinese vaccine factories in recent years.
“If China wants foreign investors to return … Japan is the most likely source of investment,” he said. “Japanese manufacturers are still likely to want to set up in China, because … most of its textile brands, its automotive industry and chemicals industry have ties with China.”
“And that cooperation would fall outside of the influence of the United States,” Chen said.
An illustration of printed Chinese and Japanese flags July 21, 2022.
Taiwanese national security expert Shih Chien-yu said China is also looking for other sources of income before the Trump administration comes to power in Washington, bringing with it a huge hike in tariffs.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will impose a 10% tariff on all products coming into the U.S. from China on his first day in office as penalties for deadly fentanyl and illegal immigrants, which he claimed were pouring across the borders.
Competition with US
Trump’s election victory sparked concern in China, where many expect the next president to take a tougher stand than his predecessor, particularly on trade and economic issues, with repercussions for an already struggling Chinese economy.
“Faced with the way its international relations are going, China is learning to put aside the proud attitude of the past,” Shih said. “It’s clear that there will be competition with the United States, so Beijing will definitely look to compete by reaching out to Tokyo to try to ease ties.”
“They’ll be wanting to do this especially over the next few months, before Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy becomes clear … because if they wait until after that, there’ll be very little room for further action,’ he said.
Shih said any rapprochement with Tokyo could also have security implications for the region.
“China, the United States and Japan have a very special military and security relationship, so China will be trying to differentiate its relationships with the United States and Japan,” he said.
“China will try to make some adjustments regarding Japan’s stance, which is to protect Taiwan or assist in its defense, because Japan will play an important role in any military conflict in the Taiwan Strait,” Shih said.
Asked about visa-free entry for Japanese nationals, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing wants to boost exchanges with Japan.
“We hope that Japan will work with China to jointly enhance the level of facilitation of personnel exchanges between the two countries,” Mao told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ray Chung for RFA Cantonese.
A six-nation naval exercise led by the United States and the Philippines has begun in the waters off northern Philippines, the second such drills in 10 days, amid rising tensions with China.
Exercise Sama Sama, or Togetherness in the Tagalog language, kicked off on Monday, “marking the beginning of two weeks of maritime engagements designed to enhance interoperability and strengthen security ties among regional partners,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.
The exercise, involving almost 1,000 naval personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. and the Philippines, takes place in the northern Luzon area facing Taiwan. The United Kingdom has sent observers to the drills.
Just days before, on Sept. 28, four of the partners – Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. – together with New Zealand, conducted a maritime exercise within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, in the South China Sea.
U.S. and Philippine Navy Sailors pose for a photo aboard Philippine Navy guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151) after a training event, September 15, 2023. (U.S. Navy)
On the same day, China announced its own air and naval drills around Scarborough Shoal, which it gained de facto control of following a standoff with the Philippines in 2012.
China’s Southern Theater Command criticized the earlier exercise as destabilizing outside interference.
“Some countries outside the region have disrupted the South China Sea and created regional instability,” the Chinese military said.
The command pledged to “resolutely defend China’s sovereignty, security, and maritime rights and interests” in the South China Sea.
Beijing, which has just observed a lengthy national holiday, has yet to respond to Sama Sama 2024.
‘Not targeted at any country’
The U.S and the Philippines are treaty allies and they conduct various joint military drills every year.
The U.S. Navy said in its statement that Sama Sama, now in its eighth iteration, “reflects the spirit of the decades-long partnership between allies in the region.”
“What began as a bilateral event between the United States and the Philippines has grown into a multilateral and multiplatform operation,” it said.
“Working alongside naval vessels and maritime surveillance aircraft, specialized teams, including diving and explosive ordnance disposal units, will conduct high-intensity drills focusing on anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-air warfare, and maritime domain awareness.”
The U.S. head of delegation, Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, told reporters before the launching of the exercise that it was not targeted at any country.
“The intent of these exercises is not to ruffle feathers. It’s tailored for interoperability,” Cimicata was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. “Across the gamut, there are people that don’t follow those rules so we have to agree so that we can set those standards.”
China, which claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, has been in a tense standoff with the Philippines over some reefs inside Manila’s EEZ.
Last week, Chinese law enforcement personnel were accused of beating and injuring 10 Vietnamese fishermen near the Paracel archipelago in what Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano described as an “alarming act with no place in international relations.”
Navy spokesperson, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, told a press briefing on Tuesday that Philippine authorities “have contingency plans in place” in case similar incidents happen to Filipino fishermen.
Trinidad urged fishermen to continue fishing in the West Philippine Sea, or the part of the South China Sea within the country’s EEZ.
The Philippine Navy said it had spotted a total of 190 Chinese vessels, including 37 naval and coast guard vessels, in Philippine waters this week, a slight increase from 178 the week before.
Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
South Vietnam’s yellow flag with three red stripes – which represented the anti-communist republic until the end of the Vietnam war in 1975 – sparks strong, opposing emotions among Vietnamese, depending on who you’re talking to.
And recently, it’s been getting a lot of attention online in Vietnam.
Social media users have been digging up footage of Vietnamese celebrities performing at events in the United States where the yellow flag appeared in the background, with the aim of embarrassing them.
They’ve “outed” a string of celebrities, including singer Myra Tran, who in 2019 performed at the U.S. funeral of a former soldier in the South Vietnamese army, prompting her to apologize.
But for ethnic Vietnamese in the United States, the flag holds deep emotional significance, and they say there’s nothing to apologize for.
The conflicting sentiments around the flag show the lingering divisions that persist nearly 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
What does the flag represent to the Vietnamese diaspora?
The 1975 victory of the North Vietnamese forces brought the country under communist rule and triggered a mass exodus of Vietnamese in the southern part of the country to flee to the United States, Canada and elsewhere.
To those Vietnamese refugees and immigrants, the flag represents their lost homeland – the Republic of Vietnam, which existed from 1955 until 1975, a land that some of their loved ones died to protect.
Student protesters in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) display the South Vietnam flag during a protest against Premier Nguyen Khanh, Aug. 31, 1964. (Nguyen Van Duc/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
It is also a symbol of resilience of those who resisted communism and overcame immense challenges to build new lives, and, most importantly, their enduring stance against communism.
Many Vietnamese immigrants have used the flag to express hatred for a communist regime that ousted them from their country.
Activists have lobbied local officials to recognize the flag representing the displaced overseas Vietnamese community. In the United States, the flag has been formally recognized by 20 states and 85 cities as of 2023, according to a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last year that seeks to recognize the flag as a symbol of the Vietnamese immigrant community.
In cities like Westminster, California, home to a large Vietnamese American population, the flag is displayed during community events, protests and memorials. Virginia’s Eden Center, the East Coast’s largest concentration of Vietnamese businesses, also flies the South Vietnamese flag alongside the U.S. flag.
“Since I was born, I’ve always seen the yellow flag with three red stripes everywhere, and I know that it is the flag of the Vietnamese people,” 23-year-old Phuong Anh, born and raised in southern California, told RFA Vietnamese.
What does it represent to Hanoi?
In Vietnam today – represented by a red flag with a yellow star – the old South Vietnamese flag is considered a symbol of treason and defiance against the government. Showing it is seen as subversive, potentially leading to severe penalties, including imprisonment.
The flag is often associated with the so-called “reactionary forces,” a term the Vietnamese government uses to describe those who oppose its rule, including former South Vietnamese officials, their descendants, and members of the Vietnamese diaspora who fled the country after the war.
State-controlled media work hard to make sure images of the yellow flag do not appear in publications or on broadcasts, even if it is in a news report about an election campaign in the United States or a sports event.
In January 2022, for example, Vietnam Television postponed airing a soccer match in Australia due to fans waving red-striped yellow flags in the stadium.
How does the flag remain an obstacle?
The flag, as a symbol of resistance to communism, worries the Vietnamese government as it could spark opposition and dissent at home and abroad, according to experts.
In Vietnamese educational and propaganda materials, the yellow flag is depicted as something to be disavowed. As a result, many in the country are angry or hostile when they see the flag.
The tension surrounding the flag shows the legacy of the Vietnam War and the deep divisions it created. It leaves many overseas Vietnamese questioning whether the Vietnamese government is ready for reconciliation with the diaspora community and moving forward from the past.
“We can only achieve reconciliation if we understand the pain of our people,” said Johny Huy, a Vietnamese in North Carolina. “I believe these are things our nation needs to acknowledge, we need to recognize and accept the suffering of those who had to flee and escape after 1975.”
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
Defense chiefs from China and the United States met in Singapore on Friday at a security forum in an encounter aimed at improving communication between the two powers amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
Dong Jun and Lloyd Austin had a one-hour meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum, being held this year from May 31 to June 2.
Few details emerged from the closed-door meeting but Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said that Dong and Austin discussed “Taiwan, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the conflict in Gaza” during talks he described as “constructive.”
Wu told reporters that the Chinese minister warned the U.S. against “interfering in China’s affairs with Taiwan.”
A U.S. spokesman said that Austin “expressed concern about recent provocative PLA activity around the Taiwan Strait,” referring to the Chinese military by its official name, the People’s Liberation Army.
“He reiterated that the PRC should not use Taiwan’s political transition – part of a normal, routine democratic process – as a pretext for coercive measures,” the spokesman, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the meeting marked an “important step” in opening lines of communication.
The official said Austin also brought up China’s nuclear, space and cyber developments.
Dong is the third Chinese defense minister – after Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe – that Austin has seen in three consecutive years at the Shangri-La Dialogue as secretary of defense, but the second minister that he’s held talks with as Li declined the offer of a meeting in 2023.
The two defense chiefs had a conversation via video last month to discuss bilateral relations, as well as regional and global security issues.
Military ties between China and the U.S. have been fraught with problems that show no sign of abating as Beijing ramps up aggression against the democratic island of Taiwan and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
The U.S., at the same time, has also been holding military exercises with allies in the region to emphasize its “free and open Indo-Pacific” doctrine.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, center, walks out after a bilateral meeting with China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore, May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Analysts said that the Dong-Austin meeting, the first in-person talks between defense chiefs since 2022, indicates an attempt to restore communication and mend ties by both sides, but they had very low expectations for much more.
Lyle Goldstein, director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities, a U.S. think tank, told RFA that he had long advocated for “more sustained, widespread, longer and deeper engagement between the U.S. and Chinese military establishments.”
“But what we have now is very narrow, only at the very top level, and extremely brief,” he said. “It’s better than a handshake, but not by much.”
“Such ‘in the spotlight’ engagements also tend to push the already truncated meetings into ‘gotcha’ moments where leaders aim for soundbites to impress the audience at home,” said Golstein, a China expert who spent 20 years at the U.S. Naval War College.
Friction points
Both Austin and Dong plan to speak at the Shangri-La Dialogue to outline their countries’ approaches to global and regional security.
Austin is due to speak on Saturday and Dong on Sunday.
The Chinese admiral, who took office in December after a major shake-up at China’s ministry of national defense, is expected to take a tougher stance against “trouble-stirring by countries from outside the region,” according to Chinese media.
Onn Thursday, a ministry spokesperson condemned the U.S. deployment of an intermediate range missile system during recent Balikatan military drills in the Philippines, saying it brought risk of war in the region.
“There are a host of friction points between the U.S. and China on the security front, the most prominent of which include Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Ukraine,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.
In Vuving’s opinion, both China and the U.S. would seek to use the Shangri-La Dialogue to “strike the weak points of the other.”
“China will likely portray the U.S. as an interventionist that stirs up tensions everywhere it gets involved, from Taiwan to the South China Sea to Ukraine to Gaza,” the political scientist said.
“The U.S. will heavily criticize China’s coercive actions, especially over Taiwan and in the South China Sea. It may also criticize China’s non-transparent practice regarding Ukraine and bases in Cambodia,” he added.
During the teleconference in April, the Pentagon chief “underscored the importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea” to his Chinese counterpart.
The Shangri-La Dialogue, held by the International Institute for Strategic Studies since 2002, has become a major platform for government officials and security experts to discuss regional security.
Chinese experts, however, take a dim view of the forum. China’s state-run tabloid Global Times quoted unidentified analysts as saying that while the conference presented opportunities for Beijing to set the record straight, “it could also be a stage where Western countries use to launch malicious accusations against China.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to deliver a keynote speech on Friday evening, in which he will talk about the South China Sea and other challenges that his country faces.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Taiwan’s tiny Kinmen island, just six kilometers (four miles) off the coast of mainland China, has become a focal point of fishing and territorial disputes, much to the chagrin of island residents who just want to earn a living in peace.
Tensions have risen following the deaths of two Chinese men when their speed boat capsized after evading inspection by Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Feb. 14 in waters that Taiwan says are restricted around the island, but which Chinese fishermen have increasingly plied.
The incident prompted strongly worded protests from Beijing. Chinese officials said they wouldn’t recognize the restricted zone, and soon afterwards China Coast Guard vessels boarded and searched a Taiwanese cruise ship, according to media reports.
Local fishermen told Radio Free Asia that long before the incident, Chinese fishing boats had been helping themselves to fish that were once the preserve of Kinmen’s fishing community.
Some have filmed the boats – which often come in the evenings, shining bright lights to attract fish – on their phones, but there’s little they can do to stop them.
“Here’s a [Chinese] boat that’s just like the one that capsized … going after yellow croaker,” a fisherman who declined to be named told RFA, showing footage captured on his phone. “Yellow croaker goes for the highest prices in China.”
A fisherman shows off his catch of yellow croaker in Kinmen, Taiwan, Feb. 21, 2024. (Ann Wang/Reuters)
“This is in a protected area where we’re not allowed to fish, but you can see them putting out the nets everywhere — just 50 meters away [from our shoreline],” he said. “Their nets are all across the protected area — several hundred of them.”
He said the Chinese fishing boats have also been known to remove nets set by fishing boats from Kinmen, causing economic losses for island residents.
“These are all Chinese speedboats,” he said, pointing to several bright lights in the waters. Once this was “our traditional fishing ground, where we would catch yellow croaker and white pomfret, but now it is a Chinese fishing ground.”
Kinmen’s colorful history
Kinmen was occupied during World War II by Japanese forces, who drove Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops out.
But when the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to communist forces under Mao Zedong in 1949, they kept most of the Chinese navy and stationed large numbers of troops on Kinmen – which effectively deterred any attempt at a communist invasion.
Kinmen once more became a key battlefield at the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 when Chinese troops fired nearly half a million artillery shells on the island, which is roughly the size of the New York borough of Brooklyn.
The island is still littered with relics of the Chinese civil war: an abandoned tank on a beach, anti-landing spikes and a World War II era cannon fired to entertain tourists.
There’s also a massive concrete speaker that plays sentimental hits by Taiwanese pop diva Teresa Teng and extols the benefits of a democratic way of life across the busy shipping lane that divides Kinmen from China.
A documentary about the island titled “The Island Between” was recently nominated for an Oscar.
Kinmen’s people have been bombed by Allied forces, starved by the Japanese army, forcibly conscripted by China and branded traitors by the authoritarian Kuomintang government in Taiwan.
It’s a liminal place that straddles borders of identity and loyalty, and has once more found itself on the front line of a historic conflict that could threaten regional stability.
Kinmen residents, many of whom have family and business ties in China, regularly take the high-speed ferry to Fujian province. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)
Today, Kinmen’s 197,000 residents have family and history on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and shuttle regularly by ferry back and forth to the Chinese city of Xiamen. They are wary of talking to journalists for fear that doing so will hurt their businesses, which rely on Chinese customers, or loved ones who are Chinese citizens.
Some have expressed mistrust of the Democratic Progressive Party government in Taipei, especially during the recent dispute over the fatal Chinese fishing boat incident.
At times, the island’s loyalties can seem fluid. In 2022, it emerged that one of the island’s generals was a Chinese spy who had pledged to surrender the island in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Blaming Taiwanese politicians
If the Chinese fishing boat incursions continue, the island’s fishermen are worried about their livelihoods. Many blame Taiwanese politicians for politicizing the deaths of the two Chinese citizens by making them about cross-Straits tensions, rather than just a private tragedy.
“Those in power over us have never lived like we do, making our living from the sea,” one fisherman told RFA Mandarin. “All we care about is getting three meals a day and how much money we’ll make today.”
“How can a tiny country like ours compete with them over there?”
Taiwan coast guard personnel inspect a Chinese fishing vessel that capsized during a chase off Kinmen island, Feb. 14, 2024. (Taiwan Coast Guard Administration via AP)
Many in Kinmen want their government to stop insisting so much on Taiwan’s sovereignty and go back to the days of tacit understandings and accommodations.
“We used to have an unspoken understanding with them,” another fisherman said. “But our government has broken the rules of the game by escalating, and so the other side has to escalate too.”
A fishmonger at Kinmen’s Kincheng Market who gave only the surname Chang told RFA that everyone needs to calm down and start being more polite to each other.
“I want to live in a country at peace, not in the chaos of war,” she said.
The United States is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help the island, whose 23 million people have little interest in being ruled by Beijing, to defend itself.
‘Very sensitive’
Meanwhile, the bodies of the two Chinese crewmembers are still in the Kinmen Funeral Home, as officials bicker about how to get them home in the absence of diplomatic ties between China and Taiwan, according to sources on the ground.
“It’s very sensitive,” a worker at the funeral home told RFA. “Most of us don’t know what’s happening.”
“There have been nearly 20 meetings, and there are a lot of problems, which have become political,” she said. “I don’t know how things are going to go across the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwanese fishermen at work in Kinmen, March 2024. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)
A Kinmen fisherman who declined to be named for fear of possible reprisals said he had seen Chinese fishing boats “snaking round and circling” Taiwan’s Coast Guard vessels, in a manner he described as “provocative.”
“They cross the median line [back into Chinese waters] the moment we give chase, and they’re always faster,” the fisherman said. “Our law enforcement boats can’t catch them.”
Tensions over fishing grounds are so commonplace that pro-China social media accounts claimed after the Feb. 14 incident that it was caused by a Taiwanese Coast Guard captain whose business interests were being harmed by the Chinese boats.
These claims were later shown to be misleading by the Asia Fact Check Lab, which is affiliated with RFA.
Some said they resented that Taiwan’s government had dispatched officials from the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei, rather than just letting local officials and the Red Cross sort out the return of the two men’s bodies.
They also point to what they call dubious claims by the Taiwanese Coast Guard that it has no video footage about the incident.
Reluctant to talk
Many who RFA contacted were wary of giving interviews for fear of reprisals from Beijing, even though they are citizens of democratic Taiwan, suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front influence operations are already highly developed in Kinmen.
One fisherman commented anonymously: “China allows these fishing boats to fish indiscriminately off Kinmen, without identification plates or skipper licenses, yet the Taiwanese Coast Guard goes to rescue them if they get into trouble in bad weather — we’ve watched them do this from the shore.”
Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao, seen in March 2024, has called for better enforcement of Taiwan’s fishing bans. (RFA/Lee Tsung-han)
Another complained that the Chinese fishing boats were emboldened by a lack of adequate law enforcement by the Taiwanese Coast Guard, which is supposed to enforce Taiwanese law in waters on Kinmen’s side of the strait.
“We’ve relied on the sea for generations — how are we supposed to get enough to eat?” he said. “They have to regulate it.”
Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao, who has no party affiliation, said there should be mutual recognition of fishing bans to enable stocks to regenerate, yet this is increasingly being ignored by Chinese fishing fleets.
“I don’t think anybody wants to see tragic deaths like the ones [on Feb. 14],” Tung said. “Nobody wants to cause this level of heartache.”
Security officials inspect fishing vessels at Kinmen’s Hsinhu Fishing Port, March 2024. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)
He said that what’s not generally spoken about is the amount of smuggling that goes on between Kinmen and China, a trade that benefits the residents of Kinmen as well as those of China.
“Naturally the fishing community is keeping mum, because if this dispute rumbles on, they will lose those connections, their network, with China. Everybody’s income will take a hit if the maritime restrictions are enforced too strictly.”
Tung called for better enforcement of Taiwan’s fishing bans, which are designed to enable sustainability in the fishing industry.
Chen Shui-yee of the Kinmen Fishermen’s Association said the fishing community feels it is caught between, trying to appease both sides at once.
“The fishermen in China aren’t organized, so there’s no equivalent party we could talk to,” Chen said. “So we won’t get involved. Our local government never talks to us about these things anyway.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hsia Hsiao-hwa and Lee Tsung-han for RFA Mandarin.
China has protested against a marine research expedition launched by Filipino scientists in Sandy Cay, a group of rocks seen as strategically important for both countries within the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
The event could potentially reignite one of the most contentious issues over sovereignty between Beijing and Manila in recent years.
“34 individuals from the Philippines ignored China’s warning and illegally boarded Tiexian Reef on Thursday,” Chinese coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement.
Tiexan Reef is the Chinese name for Sandy Cay, a group of cays – or low reefs – situated just 2 nautical miles (3 kilometers) from Philippines-occupied Thitu island, known as Pag-asa island in Tagalog.
Chinese law enforcement officers “investigated and handled the case in accordance with the law,” Gan Yu said without giving further details.
“The Philippines’ actions infringe on China’s territorial sovereignty, violate the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Gan said. “We urge the Philippines to immediately stop the infringement.”
The Chinese coast guard “will continue to carry out rights protection and law enforcement activities” in the area, the spokesman added.
Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight project at U.S. Stanford University, told Radio Free Asia that as of Friday morning, as many as 15 Chinese vessels including the 100-meter China Coast Guard (CCG) 5204 were seen crowding the area between Sandy Cay and Thitu island.
Marine research
The Philippines on Thursday said three groups of its scientists launched a marine research to study underwater reef biodiversity in the area and its current status.
The lead scientist, Jonathan Anticamara, was quoted in local media as telling a press conference that this is the first time such research is being conducted in all four parts of Sandy Cay.
“The research will have different components such as for environmental assessment, biochemical assessment, basic water parameters, and fish visual census, among others,” Anticamara was quoted as saying.
Initial findings on Sandy Cay 1 and 2 would be presented as soon as Friday.
Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela told the same press conference that it was the government who invited the scientists to carry out the research and authorities have dispatched four law enforcement vessels to accompany them in case Chinese vessels block them from Sandy Cay.
“Simple observations and measurements of their current status, which do not affect their natural state, do not affect the dispute overall since scientific activities are not a legal basis for either asserting or contesting sovereign claims,” said Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
However, Beijing views the scientific expedition differently.
The think tank South China Sea Probing Initiative called it a “provocation” and questioned whether there was a connection between the research and the visit to Manila by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 19.
China has repeatedly accused Washington of interfering in the South China Sea dispute and criticized the U.S.’s assistance to the Philippines.
Sovereignty rights
Sandy Cay is contested by China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Sandy Cay is a rock that is permanently above water and therefore is entitled to a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles from its banks.
Whichever country controls Sandy Cay would have legal sovereignty rights over any other feature located within its territorial sea, such as Subi Reef – a Chinese artificial island that Beijing has fully militarized with missiles and an airstrip.
Sandy Cay is a group of reefs near Philippines-controlled Thitu (Pag-asa) Island in the Spratlys, South China Sea. (RFA/Planet/Google Earth)
Legal experts say if China gains sovereignty over Sandy Cay, it would validate both its claim and occupation of Subi Reef, just 10 nautical miles away.
But Sandy Cay also lies within the territorial sea of Philippines-controlled Thitu island, the largest island of a municipality in the province of Palawan.
With both China and the Philippines vying to assert sovereignty over the area, the situation could become precarious.
Filipino fishermen accused Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels of maintaining a constant presence in the area, blocking their access to Sandy Cay.
“It is not Philippine activities which complicate the situation, but rather China’s overreaction and increasing need to establish absolute control over everything in the South China Sea to pursue to excessive and illegitimate claims,” Batongbacal from the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea told RFA.
In 2016, a landmark arbitral tribunal brought by the Philippines ruled against all China’s claims in the South China Sea but Beijing has rejected the verdict, calling it “illegal, null and void.”
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to order troops into the separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine has triggered a new wave of sanctions against Russia, amid fears the situation could spiral into an all-out war. We speak with Dr. Ira Helfand, former president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, who warns a war could lead to the use of nuclear weapons that would annihilate millions and cause total collapse of world ecosystems. “We have found it almost impossible to imagine, 30 years after the end of the Cold War, that there could be a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, but the crisis in Ukraine is putting exactly that possibility on the table again,” says Helfand.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
(AFP)
