America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific are getting pretty familiar with China’s grey-zone maritime behaviour, but the United States itself is ill-prepared for dealing with it. Yet it should be prepared, experts warned a US House of Representatives committee in a hearing this month. The US must not...
Security Features/Opinion
OPINION | Overcoming the deliberate legal ambiguity adopted by China’s coast guard
While laws should provide clarity and transparency, China’s recent orders regarding maritime jurisdiction appear to be deliberately based on ambiguity and uncertainty. This has become very evident in the past day after the latest clash with the Philippines in the South China Sea. In seeking to...
OPINION | High noon at Second Thomas Shoal
China has identified the beleaguered garrison at Second Thomas Shoal as a weak link among the South China Sea features physically occupied by the Philippines and, by extension, the US-Philippines alliance. While Manila has held its nerve against Beijing’s mounting pressure tactics and holds the...
OPINION | The cause for China’s coercion in the skies may lay under the water
During the Cold War, it was not unheard of for Soviet ships to attempt to disrupt US naval operations by “shouldering” vessels, meaning coming abreast and colliding in a semi-controlled manner. A famous example is the Black Sea incident of 1988, when Soviet frigates “bumped” both USS Yorktown and...