Headlines
A rare visit by Taiwan’s coast guard minister to Taiping Island is part of Taipei’s strategy to assert its claim over the disputed South China Sea outpost and a move taken right out of Beijing’s “gray zone” playbook, analysts told Radio Free Asia.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape advanced his economic agenda while in China this week, but experts stressed that economic benefits from Chinese investment should not come at the expense of the environment or workers’ rights.
Fu Cong, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations and President of the UN Security Council for the month of May, briefs reporters on the programme of work for the month.
Regardless of how the current political crisis in the Solomon Islands unfolds, experts told Radio Free Asia that they anticipate no change in the country’s close-knit relationship with China.
Southeast Asian leaders are unlikely to resolve long-standing disputes in the South China Sea at next month’s ASEAN Summit, but they could make “incremental progress” towards a Code of Conduct, or COC, aimed at managing tensions there, analysts told Radio Free Asia.
The Philippines is slowly shifting to a more “active defense posture,” analysts told Radio Free Asia, as Manila and Washington launch the largest-ever iteration of their annual war games this week.
Thousands of sick, disabled and otherwise unwell queued at Wharf T over the past week, hoping to board a Chinese hospital ship to receive free medical care.
Washington is planning a fuel depot in the southern Philippines that could support humanitarian and maritime security missions of its key Southeast Asian ally, which is locked in an increasingly hostile territorial tussle with China.
Six months after Papua New Guinea and Australia signed a bilateral defense treaty, public opinion in PNG remains divided, with some telling Radio Free Asia that they like that the pact creates opportunities for youth, and others saying that they worry about potentially being drawn into a larger conflict between the West and China.
A U.S. plan to potentially mine an area of Pacific seabed roughly the size of Nevada near two U.S. territories is the latest example of increasing competition in the region between the United States and China, a local government official told Radio Free Asia.