The “pivot” to Asia, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the new U.S. focus on the region, has given China plenty of reasons to feel uncomfortable. During President Obama’s nine-day trip to Hawaii, Australia and Indonesia, he called on China to behave as a “grown-up” economy and abide by global trade rules. In Australia …
South China Sea
Quietly, the U.S. Embarks on an East Asia Offensive
If Americans were paying attention to matters of foreign policy over the weekend, it likely had to do with what was discussed at yet another farcical Republican debate, replete with wild distortions of reality and bald admissions of ignorance. What should have been more on the collective radar took place west of South Carolina — …
A Step Back From the Brink in the South China Sea
China and Vietnam, which traded accusations this summer over rival territorial claims in the South China Sea, signed an agreement Tuesday outlining basic measures to help settle their ongoing dispute. The agreement, reached during a visit to Beijing by Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong, calls for China and Vietnam to hold biannual …
Is This How Wars Start? India and China Now Feud Over the South China Sea
Last week, one of the world’s most intractable disputes got even stickier. News leaked that the international-arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was in talks with the government of Vietnam over hydrocarbon exploration rights in the South China Sea. In most parts of the world this would seem a …
How to Avoid a War in the South China Sea
Recent months have seen a spike in tensions between China and some of its neighbors, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines, over the South China Sea. And while the dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands has calmed since last year, the unease remains, as evidenced by Japan’s wary reaction to the presence of Chinese warships …
Fire in the South China Sea: What a Sino-Vietnamese War May Look Like
First, let’s be clear: China and Vietnam are not about to go to war. But the current atmosphere of tensions, outlined by Beijing correspondent Austin Ramzy last week, leads one to wonder. On June 13, Vietnam conducted live-fire exercises off its coastal waters in the South China Sea. Vietnamese officials claimed the act had little to …
The Drumbeats of War? Tensions Rise in the South China Sea
Disputes over the South China Sea often provoke feelings of déjà-vu. That was especially the case this week, when Vietnam accused a Chinese ship of deliberately cutting exploration cables that were being towed by a seismic survey vessel working for PetroVietnam, the state-run oil and gas group. Vietnam says the June 9 incident occurred …
Hillary Clinton Blasts China’s Human Rights Record
Just as it seemed that top U.S. officials were publicly sending the same signals to China on human rights, namely that China should improve its record not just because it is morally right, but because it will help the Beijing government achieve its goal of social stability, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped a bombshell. In a …