https://www.scmp.com/rss/268533/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Macau has long been one of the few places where the elusive Kim Jong-nam can relax, say those familiar with his movements. His birthplace Pyongyang, as well as frequent travel destinations such as Beijing and Moscow all carry too much political baggage for the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Geneva, where Kim Jong-nam was educated, is a little straight-laced. He has also reportedly been targeted in assassination plots while travelling in Europe. ‘He likes the fact that Macau is... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2071011/assassinated-north-korean-kim-jong-nams-former-life-prince?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2071011/assassinated-north-korean-kim-jong-nams-former-life-prince?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Feb 2017 03:50:59 +0000 If there has been a running theme of this column, it has been the way countries across the region have been discreetly but actively co-operating to deal with the challenges of China's rise. It is not simply a case of a nervous neighbour of China's reaching out to a re-engaged US, but of nations big and small finding sudden shared interests in their mutual suspicions - a certain safety in numbers, if you like. Those suspicions emerged into plain view last week with reports from Tokyo that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1220764/how-will-china-deal-regions-distrust?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1220764/how-will-china-deal-regions-distrust?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Tensions on the Korean Peninsula will be in the spotlight today as People's Liberation Army officers tour three American naval ships visiting Hong Kong. Officers aboard the USS Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship in port with the landing vessels USS Rushmore and USS Green Bay, played down any connection between their Hong Kong stopover and North Korea's recent threats, but agreed the matter might be raised when they hosted members of the local PLA garrison. "I certainly would not rule that out,"... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1215580/hint-korean-tension-anchor-victoria-harbour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1215580/hint-korean-tension-anchor-victoria-harbour?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Amid the daily cut and thrust surrounding the disputed South China Sea - a dangerous arena clouded by diplomatic bluster and military posturing - some events are more telling than others. The PLA Navy's recent deployment of a fully equipped amphibious task force to stage a neatly choreographed show of sovereignty at an isolated shoal in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia is one move that will not be easily forgotten. James Shoal is also claimed by Malaysia - it is just 80 kilometres off its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1210118/chinese-show-force-remember-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1210118/chinese-show-force-remember-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 A fully equipped PLA amphibious task force has reached China's southernmost claimed possession in the South China Sea in an unprecedented show of force that is raising eyebrows across the region. The four-ship flotilla headed by the landing ship Jinggangshan visited James Shoal - some 80 kilometres from Malaysia, less than 200 kilometres from Brunei and 1,800 kilometres from the mainland coast - close to the outer limits of China's "nine-dash line", by which it lays claim to virtually the entire... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1200564/pla-navy-amphibious-task-force-reaches-james-shoal-near-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1200564/pla-navy-amphibious-task-force-reaches-james-shoal-near-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 As the smoke clears above the rubble and bodies of Meikhtila after Myanmar's latest outbreak of Buddhist-Muslim violence, a nervous region is watching. Myanmar is an ethnic and religious powder keg as its people emerge from under the jackboot of military rule. Any number of simmering internal conflicts have the potential to involve the wider region, risking further tensions within a troubled Association of Southeast Asian Nations or raising alarm in Beijing. Last year, the long-neglected plight... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1199572/worse-come-myanmars-religious-strife?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1199572/worse-come-myanmars-religious-strife?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong's political system would "certainly" risk legal challenges if it embraced at this stage an international covenant demanding universal suffrage, the city's solicitor general said. Frank Poon Ying-kwong was explaining to a UN human-rights hearing in Geneva last week why the city had still not implemented the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provision on "equal and universal suffrage". The Hong Kong government has opted to "reserve" - in effect to skirt -... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1194079/un-charter-suffrage-too-risky-hong-kong-ratify?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1194079/un-charter-suffrage-too-risky-hong-kong-ratify?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The 25th anniversary this past week of the naval clash between China and Vietnam in the Spratly Islands is not merely cause to reflect on history; it speaks to one of the more disturbing contingencies in the South China Sea now exercising minds in the region. The 1988 clash at Johnson Reef saw Chinese naval frigates sink two Vietnamese ships, leaving 64 sailors dead - some shot while standing on a reef - and remains a point of friction between the two nations. But its broader significance lies... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1192472/spratly-islands-dispute-defines-china-vietnam-relations-25-years-after?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1192472/spratly-islands-dispute-defines-china-vietnam-relations-25-years-after?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Investigations by the UN's refugee agency have confirmed that Thai authorities opened fire as they were moving Rohingya boatpeople, sparking a warning that it was now "gravely concerned" by the situation. A statement issued last night by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said its staff had interviewed boatpeople near the resort of Phuket as well as some 121 boatpeople who arrived in Aceh, Indonesia, four days after the incident, which reportedly took place on February 22. "According to... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1191805/un-concerned-after-investigation-shows-thai-troops-shot-rohingya?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1191805/un-concerned-after-investigation-shows-thai-troops-shot-rohingya?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Welcome to the great South China Sea battle of maps. While fears mount over the risk of conflict or miscalculation in an increasingly militarised expanse, this particular skirmish has already been under way for years. A very public front opened in the fight late last year when China, in a sly piece of cartographic manoeuvring, included its controversial "nine-dash line" claim to virtually the entire sea in its new passports along with other disputed borders. India, Vietnam and the Philippines... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1188541/battle-south-china-sea-charts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1188541/battle-south-china-sea-charts?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 In Beijing, some officials and scholars refer to it as the "n-word" - the threat of Japan and South Korea pursuing their own nuclear weapons programme to counter North Korea's intensifying atomic bad behaviour. While an expanded missile defence system among US allies may be a more immediate Beijing fear as a result of Pyongyang's recalcitrance, an evolving nuclear debate in both Seoul and Tokyo is not being blithely disregarded. Professor Zha Daojiong, international relations scholar at Peking... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1187309/seoul-and-tokyo-look-balance-nuclear-arms-game-pyongyang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1187309/seoul-and-tokyo-look-balance-nuclear-arms-game-pyongyang?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Russians, it seems, are once again getting themselves nice and cosy in Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay - the prized South China Sea port - as naval relations between the two countries deepen. Hanoi may never allow Moscow the major naval base and listening post it developed during the cold war, but the visit of the Russian defence minister this week confirmed expanding plans for a significant military presence for some time to come. Russian technicians will soon be helping Vietnam prepare the base on... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1187312/russia-gets-cosy-again-cold-war-port?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1187312/russia-gets-cosy-again-cold-war-port?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 United Nations officials have demanded urgent explanations from Thailand over reports that its security forces shot dead up to 15 unarmed Rohingya migrants trying to flee neighbouring Myanmar. Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Thailand, said officials yesterday met counterparts from the Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok. "We … are watching this closely and we are concerned," Tan said. While no specific timetable was offered from the Thai side, "we did... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1185777/un-plea-thailand-over-reports-15-rohingya-migrants-were-shot-dead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1185777/un-plea-thailand-over-reports-15-rohingya-migrants-were-shot-dead?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Consider this a tale of two ships - one old, one new and both reflective of the budgetary problems now facing the US Navy as it faces a decade of cuts. Hong Kong this weekend plays host to the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the US Seventh Fleet and one of the navy's oldest vessels. Steaming to Singapore, meanwhile, is its newest - the USS Freedom, the first of the new so-called littoral combat ships to be based there, designed for speed, stealth and shallow water. The Blue Ridge's commanding... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1170636/us-combat-ships-try-stay-afloat-amid-billions-budget-cuts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1170636/us-combat-ships-try-stay-afloat-amid-billions-budget-cuts?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Talk about China's ambitions and excesses with mainland officials, scholars and students, and the phrase "just look at what the US does" surfaces with crushing inevitability. US exploration in the Gulf of Mexico is trotted out to justify China's actions in the South China Sea, for example. Or it might be the suggestion that the US would not accept Chinese warships routinely patrolling near its coasts, just as Beijing warns off US carriers from the Yellow Sea. Both are debatable at best and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1158398/drone-plan-china-seems-be-learning-americas-unilateral-ways?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1158398/drone-plan-china-seems-be-learning-americas-unilateral-ways?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 If the tension between China and Japan over the disputed Diaoyu Islands highlights a lack of communication in Northeast Asia, then last week's third nuclear test by North Korea showed just how dangerous the stakes are. The underground explosion at the Punggye-ri test site - 100 kilometres from the Chinese border - was North Korea's largest yet. With Pyongyang reportedly threatening more tests soon, uncertainty is once again mounting over the direction and stability of the young regime of Kim... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1156525/regional-distrust-hampering-response-cope-breakdown-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1156525/regional-distrust-hampering-response-cope-breakdown-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Philippines is about to wade into unchartered waters in its relations with China over the South China Sea. Once China ignores - as expected - a 30-day deadline expiring today to appoint its own UN arbitrator to handle a legal challenge from the Philippines over its controversial claims, Manila will be free to push ahead without China's consent in a rare move. A Foreign Ministry statement this week made clear that Beijing had no interest in dignifying Manila's move, dismissed by some mainland... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1154951/manila-tackle-sea-row-or-without-china-un?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1154951/manila-tackle-sea-row-or-without-china-un?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 North Korea warned last night that it has more in store after unleashing its third - and largest - nuclear test on Tuesday in a move swiftly condemned by China. A statement from the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang said the test was the "first response" to what it called US threats. "Second and third measures of greater intensity" would be taken if Washington continued its hostility. China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi immediately summoned the North Korean ambassador Ji Jae-ryong for a formal... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1148973/nuclear-blast-just-start-warns-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1148973/nuclear-blast-just-start-warns-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It is probably just as well that Philippine lawyers and officials spent months quietly working out the strategy and legal steps required to force China to UN arbitration over the South China Sea. For, nearly three weeks after Manila launched its unprecedented action, it is increasingly clear that theirs will be a lonely road. The sound of collective teeth sucking has been audible in pockets across Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, amid fears the unilateral move will further dent the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1148094/manilas-lonely-path-over-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1148094/manilas-lonely-path-over-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Two Russian-built Kilo submarines cruise the dark, frigid waters of the North Sea out of Kaliningrad, being readied for delivery later this year to Vietnam, where Indian technicians are already helping to train Vietnamese crews. Down in the Philippines, meanwhile, final preparations are under way to seal a deal to buy a squadron of jet fighters from South Korea and receive three naval helicopters from Italy. As Southeast Asia's military build-up intensifies to counter China's military rise, it... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1146155/southeast-asian-countries-stock-arms-they-face-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1146155/southeast-asian-countries-stock-arms-they-face-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The head of the US marines has raised the prospect of future training missions in Vietnam - the latest sign of a deepening strategic relationship between Hanoi and Washington that is being closely watched in Beijing. Marine Corps commandant General Jim Amos was quoted this week in the Marine Corps Times newspaper as saying that an upcoming bomb disposal effort in Vietnam could lead to the country being used for training. "We are not training in Vietnam," Amos said of the deployment in July that... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145633/head-us-marines-says-training-missions-vietnam-possibility?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145633/head-us-marines-says-training-missions-vietnam-possibility?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 If last week's move by Manila to challenge Beijing's territorial claims at the United Nations highlighted its legal and diplomatic intent, this week's announcement that it is poised to buy a squadron of fighter jets from South Korea shows its determination to create a meaningful strategic deterrent. For years the Philippines' armed forces have been dismissed by military analysts as a joke, but the prospect of its first operational fighters in more than a decade is merely the latest in a string... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1140584/manila-signals-resolve-defence-news-fighter-jet-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1140584/manila-signals-resolve-defence-news-fighter-jet-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 If China needed any further excuses to place on the back burner negotiations with Asean over worsening tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines' actions in the past week may have provided them with one. Manila's move to use the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to force a ruling on China's controversial claim to virtually the entire South China Sea is as bold as it is intriguing, setting the stage for several years of legal exposure that will not be welcomed by a Beijing increasingly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1138007/south-china-sea-code-conduct-between-asean-and-china-peril?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1138007/south-china-sea-code-conduct-between-asean-and-china-peril?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 A single act in Manila this week shifted the diplomatic and legal battle lines in the intensifying South China Sea dispute. When Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario summoned Chinese ambassador Ma Keqing on Tuesday to announce that Manila was taking Beijing's sovereignty claim to United Nations arbitration without its consent, he set the stage for what could be years of bruising legal action. Scholars and analysts believe it could spark challenges from other claimant nations concerned... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1136191/manilas-action-over-south-china-sea-could-risk-aggravating-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1136191/manilas-action-over-south-china-sea-could-risk-aggravating-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a rare intervention yesterday in the deepening South China Sea sovereignty dispute, urging an "amicable" settlement but offering assistance if need be. Ban's comments came hours after the Philippines launched an unprecedented move to force China to a UN arbitration panel over the legality of its nine-dash line - the basis for Beijing's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. Ban said he had been following the dispute carefully. "It is important for... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1134622/un-chief-ban-ki-moon-makes-rare-intervention-south-china-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1134622/un-chief-ban-ki-moon-makes-rare-intervention-south-china-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Philippines' move to seek a ruling from a UN arbitration tribunal over China's so-called nine-dash line represents a dramatic throw of the political and legal dice. It is anyone's guess where they will land. The line represents China's historic claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, reaching deep into the heart of maritime South East Asia and bisecting the economic zones of several nations, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. Manila's step - launched without China's... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1133915/analysis-manila-gambles-un-arbitration-dispute-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1133915/analysis-manila-gambles-un-arbitration-dispute-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Philippines yesterday launched unprecedented legal action to challenge at the UN China's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea - a move made over Beijing's objections. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario summoned Chinese ambassador Ma Keqing to receive a formal note confirming Manila would challenge the validity of China's nine-dash line - which delineates its territorial claims - and other actions, including island occupations, via an arbitration tribunal under the UN's... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1133964/philippines-take-maritime-dispute-china-un?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1133964/philippines-take-maritime-dispute-china-un?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The prospect of increased defence spending by Japan presents a host of challenges for China. In the longer term, they will be strategic and diplomatic, but more immediately it is proving a test for China's rhetoric. Seemingly as a matter of course, mainland scholars warned recently against any steps by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to boost defence budgets. The controversial US strategic "pivot" back to the region has been similarly contested by Chinese officials as outdated... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1127980/us-and-japans-defence-moves-test-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1127980/us-and-japans-defence-moves-test-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Japan is to spend more than US$1 billion to expand radar coverage and military surveillance flights in its first increase in military spending in more than a decade as the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party fleshes out its approach to dealing with an emboldened China. Details of the budget increase emerged as Tokyo summoned the Chinese ambassador to formally protest against Beijing's latest deployment of ships to the Japanese-occupied Diaoyu Islands - which Tokyo calls the Senkakus - the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1123359/japan-increases-military-budget-amid-tension-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1123359/japan-increases-military-budget-amid-tension-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Our recent story outlining the strategic and historical context behind the statements from outgoing President Hu Jintao that China must "build itself into a maritime power" made interesting reading for anyone wanting to understand what is going on in the region. While the political jockeying and post-Bo Xilai intrigue generated more headlines out of the recent 18th party congress, Hu's vision of China's maritime future resonated across the region's staterooms and strategic salons. On one level,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1121458/theres-good-reason-chinas-bluster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1121458/theres-good-reason-chinas-bluster?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Pro-government rallies are like a peculiar Hong Kong kaleidoscope. The longer you stare at them, the stranger they look. Pro-establishment organisers taking their support of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to the streets may well be congratulating themselves on money well spent (quite literally). The rallies, after all, did serve to dilute the impact of the New Year's Day anti-Leung rally, which proved to be significantly larger than expected. Theirs was a cunning propaganda stunt. But they are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1120093/rent-mob-road-rancour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1120093/rent-mob-road-rancour?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Some choice words have been used to describe the brinkmanship across a US Congress that led us to the edge of the American "fiscal cliff" - "shenanigans", "circus", "omnishambles". Certainly few are pretending that it represents the festival of democracy envisaged by America's higher motives. We are left to yet again reflect on the statement of an anonymous Illinois state senator in 1898 that "the making of laws is like the making of sausages - the less you know about the process, the more you... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1119287/were-all-mercy-us-circus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1119287/were-all-mercy-us-circus?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Raking over the embers of a volatile year between Asean and China over South China Sea disputes, it is clear a few at least still flicker with life. Among them is the prospect of talks among Asean's four rival claimants to the Spratly archipelago - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - to settle their own positions. On paper, at least, it is a compelling move. A common statement of claim would introduce a significant new dynamic to an equation that, right now, is looking increasingly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1116765/long-way-joint-asean-claim-spratly-islands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1116765/long-way-joint-asean-claim-spratly-islands?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The prospect of failed US presidential candidate John Kerry becoming the next US secretary of state throws up a number of intriguing questions for the East Asian region. One of the key ones is: will familiarity breed contempt? The veteran senator from Massachusetts has, in large part, defined himself by his years on the Senate's foreign relations committee. He has travelled widely, met key players and has a smooth grasp of the strategic issues, from North Korea's nuclear programme to the Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1107109/john-kerrys-familiarity-asia-plus-or-minus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1107109/john-kerrys-familiarity-asia-plus-or-minus?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Placing consensus above all, it is fair to say that Asean leaders are generally not known for their displays of emotion or passion. Yet, in a crucial closed-door meeting in July, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario tried to tap those dormant qualities as he tried to rally his peers to stand up to China over the South China Sea. Trying, in the words of one observer, "to bloody well wake them up", del Rosario quoted the famous lines from German theologian Martin Niemöller of the perils... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1100795/filipino-albert-del-rosario-lone-asean-voice-taking-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1100795/filipino-albert-del-rosario-lone-asean-voice-taking-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 India's naval chief has raised the prospect of sending ships into the disputed South China Sea to defend its oil exploration interests off Vietnam - a move certain to rile China. The comments from Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi on Monday come after days of escalating tensions, including international concerns over new regulations from Hainan authorities to govern the stop-and-search of foreign ships, and also an incident near the Gulf of Tonkin last Friday when two Chinese fishing boats cut cables... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1097651/india-mulls-sending-naval-ships-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1097651/india-mulls-sending-naval-ships-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 In the evolving story of the South China Sea - now an issue with broadening international dimensions - the events of the past few days are potentially highly significant. The importance of reports from Hainan that provincial officials have passed new regulations to govern the halting and boarding of foreign ships in disputed waters should not be underestimated. While the details have still to be fleshed out, they play on the worst fears of rival claimants in the South China Sea, as well as the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1096606/china-sounds-clear-warning-over-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1096606/china-sounds-clear-warning-over-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China has told the Philippines it intends to keep ships permanently stationed at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, according to the Philippines' foreign secretary. In a wide-ranging interview yesterday with the South China Morning Post, Secretary Albert del Rosario described Beijing's moves as "dictatorial" and warned that its new leadership might struggle to ignore demands from the public for more assertiveness. He said he feared a permanent presence would make it... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1094200/china-dictatorial-scarborough-shoal-dispute-says-del-rosario?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1094200/china-dictatorial-scarborough-shoal-dispute-says-del-rosario?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The frustration and sarcasm were evident as Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang outlined the "mathematics" at play this week behind China's troubled relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. First, Qin said, one had to add up Asean's East Asia Summit - "10 plus eight"- the 10 nations of Asean and eight other powers, including China and the United States. Then, he said, there was "another mathematics" within Asean itself. "It's 10 minus two," Qin noted, a clear swipe at the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087801/unruly-asean-not-playing-beijings-game-territorial-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087801/unruly-asean-not-playing-beijings-game-territorial-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday used his last meeting with US President Barack Obama to push for stability between Washington and Beijing’s new leadership. In a wide-ranging meeting at the Asean East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, the two leaders discussed economic and security issues, including the growing territorial disputes between China and its neighbours. Wen, who will be stepping down from the post of premier next March, spoke of the global importance of the Sino-US relationship, urging... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087198/sino-us-stability-helps-whole-world-wen-tells-obama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087198/sino-us-stability-helps-whole-world-wen-tells-obama?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:45:47 +0000 China on Tuesday defended Cambodia's controversial bid to limit international discussions of South China Sea tensions, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman praising Phnom Penh for trying to "safeguard Asean unity". The comments from Qin Gang came after a day of acrimony at Asean's East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh that saw disputes over the South China Sea overshadow leaders' meetings. Philippine President Benigno Aquino warned that South China Sea issues were "now more urgent and imperative" than... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087046/beijing-praises-cambodias-efforts-limit-discussions-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1087046/beijing-praises-cambodias-efforts-limit-discussions-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Asean unity yet again lay in tatters last night – thwarting a Chinese-backed effort to keep South China Sea territorial disputes off the agenda of today’s international leaders’ summit in Cambodia. Host Cambodia’s claim on Sunday that the 10 leaders of Southeast Asia had agreed not to “internationalise” the issue by limiting it to meetings with China was directly challenged by the Philippines’ President Benigno Aquino. “There were several views expressed yesterday on Asean unity which we did not... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1086448/south-china-sea-dispute-wrecks-asean-unity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1086448/south-china-sea-dispute-wrecks-asean-unity?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:49:08 +0000 As a point of argument, is there anything the US Republican Party, now licking its wounds from yet another election defeat, can learn from the Chinese leadership transition? On the surface, an absurd notion, perhaps, given the light years separating the two political systems. But if there is a link, it must be the toxic nature of propaganda. Propaganda can be heady yet acidic stuff. Veteran propagandists know it must be handled with extreme caution, given its potential to burn from within those... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1086180/us-republicans-china-should-beware-toxic-nature-propaganda?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1086180/us-republicans-china-should-beware-toxic-nature-propaganda?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Asean leaders yesterday moved to limit their discussions of tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea - a move which could keep the issue off the agenda just as US President Barack Obama arrives in Phnom Penh to intensify Washington's push back to Asia. Papering over differences after rancorous meetings in July, the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations pledged to confine the dispute to direct talks between the bloc and China, rather than in bilateral talks... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1085697/islands-row-agenda-east-asia-summit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1085697/islands-row-agenda-east-asia-summit?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 This week's gathering of regional leaders in Cambodia won't witness a breakdown in talks between foreign ministers over the South China Sea, as happened at their last meeting in July, but nor is it likely to see agreement on the issue. Diplomats and analysts say a sense of drift has settled over efforts to forge a legally binding code of conduct between Asean nations and China to reduce tensions over the sea - and that suits Beijing just fine. Asean's target of reaching an agreement this year... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1084951/asean-summit-unlikely-seal-code-conduct-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1084951/asean-summit-unlikely-seal-code-conduct-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 For anyone doubting Washington's determination to push ahead with its strategic "pivot" back towards Asia amid China's rise, US President Barack Obama's diplomatic offensive in Southeast Asia this weekend will make for jarring reading. In staging the historic first visits by a serving US president to Myanmar and Cambodia, as well as stopping in Thailand to buttress one of Washington's oldest regional relationships, Obama is visiting three countries that have been among China's closer long-term... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1083290/obamas-asian-trip-delivers-firm-message?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1083290/obamas-asian-trip-delivers-firm-message?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 US President Barack Obama will engage China and its neighbours in a fresh diplomatic offensive after securing a historic second term in the White House. Obama will attend the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on November 18, which Premier Wen Jiabao is also expected to join. It could be followed by a trip to Myanmar, in what would be an unprecedented visit for a US president to the former pariah state. Both President Hu Jintao and Wen congratulated Obama after he defeated Republican rival Mitt Romney... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077525/re-elected-barack-obama-diplomatic-offensive-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077525/re-elected-barack-obama-diplomatic-offensive-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:48:17 +0000 Once the party ends after US President Barack Obama's historic - and bitterly fought - re-election, he faces a sobering stack of issues demanding urgent attention. And among the folders in his in-tray will be ones marked "China" and "Asia". Amid all the rancour of his long campaign against Republican rival Mitt Romney, one of the few areas of loose bipartisan agreement was Washington's approach to the region. Their debates saw a sharpening of the sense that Washington must stand up to Beijing on... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077355/four-more-years-obama-make-his-mark?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077355/four-more-years-obama-make-his-mark?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 To gauge the depth of the questions facing the Republican Party after its defeat on Tuesday, just consider one fact. It was the fifth time in the past six elections that the Republicans had lost the popular vote. While some looking for scapegoats will point to recent events, particularly the intervention of superstorm Sandy in killing the momentum of Mitt Romney, or even the claim from some in the party he was not a "genuine conservative", far larger issues loom. It is an old US political saying... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077249/tea-party-influence-leaves-bitter-taste-republicans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1077249/tea-party-influence-leaves-bitter-taste-republicans?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 US President Barack Obama today stands on the edge of history. Defeat at the hands of Mitt Romney, his Republican rival for the White House, will deny America's first black president the chance not just of redemption after a bruising four years, but a bid for greatness. History warns that only two-term presidents - Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson - have the chance to make that leap. The one-termers - Jimmy Carter, George Bush senior - must face a long retreat before history looks at... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1076554/two-men-brink-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1076554/two-men-brink-history?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000