The United States military said one of its warships in the South China Sea sailed Monday near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China and the Philippines. “USS Preble sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law,”Read more

A rare U.S. Coast Guard exercise in the South China Sea this month shows that the United States is broadening its reach in a disputed waterway, a new pressure point between Washington and the sea’s chief claimant Beijing. On May 14 the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf joined two Philippine coast guard vessels for trainingRead more

The deployment this year of a second aircraft carrier and construction of a third will allow China to position one of the carriers in the contested South China Sea, maritime policy experts believe. A carrier known only as Type 001 has been tested in China for formal use by September. Another is being built forRead more

China and Southeast Asian countries that dispute sovereignty over a strategic Asian sea aim to speed up talks toward a code of conduct that would lower the risk of accidents and help keep the U.S. government out of the fray. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his country and a bloc of Southeast Asian statesRead more

China objected Monday to the passage of two U.S. warships near disputed islands in the South China Sea. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the warships entered the waters without Chinese permission. He said the warships had violated China’s sovereignty, while also harming peace, security “and good order in the relevant seas.” China has expandedRead more

Beijing has declared a moratorium on fishing in about half the heavily disputed South China Sea every year since 1995. And every year other countries with competing sovereignty claims keep letting their own fishing fleets do as they wish.  The Chinese coast guard says the ban that took effect May 1 this year will beRead more

Freedom of navigation should not be used to infringe upon the rights of other countries, China’s navy chief Shen Jinlong said on Wednesday, taking a dig at the United States and its allies who have sailed close to disputed South China Sea islets. The United States has frequently sent warships near to Chinese-occupied features inRead more

China’s navy wants maritime “tranquillity and good order,” its chief said on Monday, ahead of a parade to mark its 70th anniversary at which the military is expected to display new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers. President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by developing everythingRead more

Both China and Vietnam are building up tiny islets across Asia’s most disputed sea, but while China receives international criticism Vietnam receives very little, and even gets some support because its pace of construction is slower and widely seen as defensive. Vietnam’s work on islets it has held for decades is kept to areas ofRead more

The Philippines is edging further back into a once strained alliance with the United States as China, a friend of three years, keeps challenging Manila’s maritime claims and offers less aid than many Filipinos had hoped. Philippine-U.S. cooperation has picked up over the past two months with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit toRead more