Assessing China’s Crop Success in the South China Sea

As Vietnam stands its ground and attests to the legitimacy of its claims in public, the ball is in Beijing’s court to decide whether China wants to be a responsible emerging power.

Too often analysts of the South China Sea disputes tend to treat them as somewhat abstract debates over different modes of global governance. We also need to see them as a clear and present danger to the livelihoods and standards of ...

The only way for a Joint Development Agreement to push through is that Duterte would manage to amend the Philippine constitution, largely ignore his country’s arbitration award victory, and overcome deep-seated public antipathy towards resource-sharing agreements with China.  

The desire to see Chinese diplomatic softening as a sign of a new status quo is understandable, and it is important that the door be left open for Beijing to deescalate. But China’s recent behavior should be seen as the best ...

However vocally supportive Canberra is of the United States in the South China Sea, in an operational sense Australia has held back since Washington began its current freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), in October 2015, shortly after Malcolm Turnbull took over ...

East and Southeast Asia have seen considerable economic growth over the past few decades. The pace of development in China has been virtually unprecedented, with millions of people being raised above severe poverty to a middle-class lifestyle. This outcome has resulted ...

South China is economically more important for the Philippines than it is to China. Aside from rich fisheries, the country’s biggest natural gas field and its promising offshore energy fields are all located in the South China Sea.