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China says it will allow tourists to visit disputed islands in the South China Sea, a move likely to further inflame tensions over the vast maritime region. Beijing's plans for the Paracel islands are likely to irritate Vietnam, which also claims the islands as part of its territory. Hanoi issued a statement last week denouncing a sailing race around the Parcels staged by authorities in China's Hainan province.

Vietnam's navy has taken delivery of its first locally-made warship, equipped with artillery and missile systems, local media report. The Hong Ha shipbuilding company started building the model in 2009 and tested the warship last year.

INCHEON - A freighter exploded in waters off Incheon, killing five sailors and causing six others to go missing. According to the Incheon Coast Guard, the 4,191-ton oil carrier Doola No. 3 exploded yesterday for unknown reasons 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) north of Jawol Island in Ongjin County, Incheon

Air-Sea BattleOur defense intellectuals, seeking a new Big Idea, need to seek farther. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the U.S. military is in the midst of another of its many revolutions in thinking. As we depart Iraq and begin positioning ourselves to exit Afghanistan, the military appears in a rush to put the whole idea of Counterinsurgency Warfare behind it. All over D.C. one can hear the sounds of the nation’s deepest military thinkers closing the door on one era as they scramble about in search of the next big thing. Counterinsurgency had a good run — almost ten years. Few...

Earlier this year, unprecedented protests were held in Vietnam, a Communist regime that notoriously stamps out any form of dissent. The demonstrations were about China’s aggressive antics in the South China Sea. China is claiming an exclusive economic zone covering more than half the area and has recently come into conflict with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.Dr Cuong Trong Bui, president of the Queensland chapter of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, is concerned that China is “bullying” countries over the South China Sea.“Vietnam lodged a protest when Chinese vessels on 26th of May damaged cables and equipment within Vietnam’s 370km...

First, the good news… U.S. oil company ExxonMobil is reporting a “potentially significant” gas discovery off the coast of Vietnam, stating in a press release, "We can confirm ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Vietnam Limited drilled its second exploration well offshore Danang in August 2011 and encountered hydrocarbons." ExxonMobil is the world's largest publicly traded oil company by market value. While Vietnam, an oil exporter and the third-largest oil producer in South Asia, began offshore exploration of its reserves in the 1970s, Hanoi only started in 2004 awarding offshore exploration concessions to a plethora of foreign companies, including those from the...

It's called the "South China Sea" and China wants everyone to recognize it that way. The only problem? A few other countries feel differently. It's called the "South China Sea" and China wants everyone to recognize it just that way. There is no question in Beijing's official mind that this body of water is entirely within Chinese sovereignty. The problem is that Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Taiwan all have claims to a portion of that immense body of water by virtue of the fact that portions of their countries are bordered by that sea. This is to say...

Why China Wants South China Sea East Asia | Security | China July 18, 2011By Tetsuo Kotani Beijing is interested in more than just energy and fishery resources. The area is also integral to its nuclear submarine strategy. In an effort to underscore its importance to Asia, geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described it as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean.’ More recently, it has been dubbed the ‘Chinese Caribbean.’ And, just as Rome and the United States have sought control over the Mediterranean and Caribbean, China now seeks dominance over the South China Sea. It’s clear that China’s claims and recent assertiveness have...

Campbell: US to make proposals on S. China Sea US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell says the United States will make new proposals on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea at the ASEAN Regional Forum later this month. Campbell, who is in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs, made the remark in an exclusive interview with NHK. He will attend the ARF meeting, to be held on the Indonesian island of Bali on July 23rd. The meeting comes as tension is rising between China and Southeast Asian nations over the control of islands in the South...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Washington is committed to the defence of the Philippines, amid rising tensions in the South China Sea. She said the US would honour its mutual defence pact with Manila and offer the Philippines affordable weapons. Several Asian nations claim territory in the South China Sea; Chinese ships have recently encroached on areas to which others have declared ownership. ... The Philippines has complained of nine separate Chinese incursions into its territorial waters since late February, and Vietnam has also accused China of harassment in the region. The area around the small Spratly...

An increasingly fractious maritime confrontation is developing in the South China Sea, with enormous implications for international companies interested in developing East Asia’s offshore hydrocarbon resources. Far from the radars of city of London and Wall Street investors, the clash has seen Vietnam emerge as spear carrier for its fellow ASEAN members on the dispute. Offshore drilling is the most capital-intensive form of exploiting hydrocarbons, but its expense and scarcity has also allowed technically advanced Western companies to drive hard bargains with third world countries over their offshore waters, as they don’t have indigenous advanced technical resources nor finances to...

Chinese military bigwig says South China Sea belongs to China BY KENJI MINEMURA STAFF WRITER 2011/06/07 SINGAPORE--A member of China's top military brass asserted that, according to history, the South China Sea falls under China's sovereignty. Ouyang Wei, a colonel and a National Defense University professor, made the remark in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun on June 5 on the sidelines of the 10th Asia Security Summit, dubbed the Shangri-La dialogue. Ouyang also said the sea area is crucial to China's interests. It is the first time a top executive in the Chinese military has voiced such views to...

Call it China’s ‘Christmas surprise.’ In a series of grainy photos given a pass by government Internet censors starting December 25, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force unveiled the country’s first stealth fighter prototype, the Chengdu J-20. For alarmists, the Pacific balance of power seemed to shift in an instant. Armed with hundreds of fast, elusive J-20s in coming years, the PLAAF could dominate the South China Sea, reaffirming China’s rise as a global power and elbowing aside less audacious, tech-savvy rivals. ‘(The) Asia-Pacific’s political landscape will be changed as China’s military capability can win over countries in this region,’...

How a naval confrontation in the South China Sea created a global investment bubble -- and cost me half my life savings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What's the definition of a mine? A hole in the ground with a liar on top." The most famous aphorism about the mining business is usually credited -- possibly apocryphally -- to Mark Twain, who before assuming the mantle of America's great literary wit was just another mining speculator gone bust. But generations of fleeced investors since Twain's day would nod angrily in agreement -- losing a fortune on too-good-to-be-true mining deals is a tradition as old...

Nyugen Tan Dung, the Vietnamese prime minister, said Cam Ranh Bay, 180 miles north west of Ho Chi Minh city, would stand ready to service ships and submarines "from all countries". Russia is to help rebuild the port as part of an £1.3 billion defence deal signed earlier this year. The move is one of a series of interlocking regional arrangements that are being put in place to counter China's growing might. In October, Vietnam signed an agreement giving Indian naval ships base facilities at its ports. India, in turn, agreed to help Hanoi expand its naval logistics capabilities, and...

There is trouble on the high seas. Few doubted China’s astonishing economic and geopolitical rise would fuel competition and rivalry with the United States and China’s Asian neighbors. Most observers, however, have been left guessing where the first serious points of conflict would emerge. We may have been given our answer this summer: in the disputed and crowded waters of the Asian Pacific, where overlapping claims of sovereignty and territorial rights among the United States, China and a handful of East Asian nations have spilled into confrontation and political brinkmanship this year. The most recent, and worrisome, manifestation can be...

China plants flag in south sea amid disputes Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:27am GMT BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had used a small, manned submarine to plant the national flag deep beneath the South China Sea, where Beijing has tussled with Washington and Southeast Asian nations over territorial disputes. The submarine achieved the feat during 17 dives from May to July, when it went as deep as 3,759 metres (12,330 ft) below the South China Sea, the official China News Service said, citing the Ministry of Science and Technology and State Oceanic Administration. Chinese news reports did...

China opposes Vietnam's accusation on South China Sea islands English.news.cn 2010-08-07 01:52:50 BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua)-- China firmly opposes any remarks and actions that violate its sovereignty over Xisha Islands and adjacent waters in the South China Sea, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu here on Friday. Jiang made the comment after Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said Thursday, according to media reports, that Chinese vessels' seismic exploration activities near Xisha Islands had violated Vietnam's sovereignty. "China has indisputable sovereignty over Xisha Islands and adjacent waters," Jiang reiterated in a news release. Editor: Mu Xuequan

July 23, 2010 Offering to Aid Talks, U.S. Challenges China on Disputed Islands By MARK LANDLER HANOI, Vietnam — Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically significant islands in the South China Sea. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said that the United States...

It's a 3.5 million-square kilometer stretch of ocean, speckled with some 200 coral atolls, some submerged or so tiny they hardly deserve to be called islands. Welcome to the South China Sea, an obscure patch of global real estate that you're likely to hear more about in coming years. Six Asian countries have long had competing — at times comical — claims to various islands here, sending token military forces to occupy barren rocks at great expense in the name of national pride. What's new is China's muscle-flexing, which, if trends continue, could make the South China Sea one of...