by WorldTribune Staff, May 23, 2016 China is building a base in the disputed Spratly Islands for an advanced rescue vessel complete with drones and underwater robots. Chen Xingguang, political commissar of the ship, said the ship is scheduled to be deployed in the second half of the year, the official China Daily reported on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Donald Trump correctly asserted that President Barack Obama’s weakness has emboldened China, but the GOP front-runner has also hinted he will continue 1980s-era business-oriented approaches toward Beijing that have not worked, national security journalist Bill Gertz wrote. “Our president has allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and wealth, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com China warned against any “provocative actions” in what it claims as its territorial waters a day after the Pentagon said it was considering sending warships close to China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea. A U.S. defense official on Oct. 8 said that American ships would navigate within 12-nautical-mile zones around […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Pentagon officials are planning to send U.S. warships near artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea if the White House approves, officials told the Navy Times. A U.S. defense official said that the U.S. ships would navigate within 12-nautical-mile zones around the artificial islands in the Spratly chain that China claims […]
Special to WorldTribune.com U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has called on China to stop construction on artificial islands in the South China Sea as U.S. surveillance showed Chinese artillery positioned on one of the islands. Carter said on May 27 that China’s action of reclaiming 2,000 acres of land where military bases are being built […]
Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel.com The ongoing talks on revising the U.S.-Japan defense guideline, which will be finalized by the end of this year, heralds progress towards the globalization of Japan’s military presence. Japan has recently lifted its self-imposed ban on collective self defense which means that from now on, the Japanese defense forces will be […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Remember the great “surge” of U.S.forces in Iraq that Gen. David Petraeus believed would finish off the bad guys before the U.S. scaled down and then withdrew its forces? It was as though the U.S. wanted to declare a victory and go home. Anyone would have known that […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Geostrategy-Direct.com A ramming incident between a Chinese and a Vietnamese maritime vessel on June 1 highlighted the escalation of violence in the South China Sea between the two communist countries over disputed waters. The Chinese state media gloated about the Chinese vessel’s “heroic” move and reported that the Vietnamese vessel was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Beijing seems to have all guns blazing on the diplomatic front even as what the authorities call Uighur jihadists are wrecking more havoc in and out of Xinjiang. While it has been a Chinese diplomatic principle to avoid simultaneous confrontations in both the South China Sea and the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com “I came through and I shall return.” — Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia after being ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to leave Japanese-occupied Philippines in 1942. By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANILA — U.S. forces were supposed to be gone from the Philippines for good by 1991 when the U.S. pulled out of […]