Earlier this year, U.S.-Philippines strategic cooperation appeared to be making progress towards increasing joint naval patrols, basing more U.S. troops in the Philippines, and military aid….Once Filipino President Benigno Aquino passed the torch to Duterte on June 30th of this year, many believed he would maintain if not build on the work of his predecessor.
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Philippines’ Duterte Leaves U.S. Policymakers “Baffled”
Posted October 25th, 2016 at 9:42 am (UTC-5)
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The Philippines Is About to Give Up the South China Sea to China
Posted October 17th, 2016 at 12:42 pm (UTC-5)
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Were Aquino’s anointed successor Mar Roxas currently president of the Philippines, it’s likely the nation would now be rallying international diplomatic pressure against China…Instead Duterte, after years of the Philippines building its legal argument and winning, appears set to essentially reverse course and give China Scarborough Shoal after all.
China’s Military Aggression Means the U.S.-Philippines Relationship Will Survive Despite Duterte’s Slurs
Posted September 8th, 2016 at 11:21 am (UTC-5)
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Despite the friction, an increasingly assertive China cements the underlying relationship between the two nations….Faced with such aggression, Manila recently agreed to welcome back US forces, giving them access to a handful of Filipino military bases…
Is a Rebuked China Taking a Timeout?
Posted July 27th, 2016 at 11:22 am (UTC-5)
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The deeper problem underlying the South China Sea dispute is the increasingly assertive nationalism of Chinese President Xi Jinping. But here, too, the Chinese appear to have taken a step back from the public anti-U.S. agitation that immediately followed the ruling.
Reversing China’s South China Sea Grab
Posted July 26th, 2016 at 12:45 pm (UTC-5)
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[A]ll U.S. visas for students from China to be revoked prior to the start of the 2016-17 academic year…[s]hould the PRC not demilitarize the South China Sea by Jan. 20, 2017…revocation of all Chinese EB-5 visas, tourist visas and the resultant Green Cards dating back to the law’s inception…
No Shangri-La in the South China Sea
Posted June 2nd, 2016 at 5:10 pm (UTC-5)
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Shangri-La is defined as an imaginary paradise, exotic utopia, a faraway haven of tranquility.
Utopia and tranquility are perhaps the furthest thing from the minds of Asia-Pacific defense ministers when they get together this weekend in Singapore for the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue security summit.
Topping their agenda: what to do about China’s claim to 3.5 million square kilometers of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim parts of that area. China is building artificial islands it says are for navigation, scientific and emergency services, with “limited defense facilities,” according to China’s Ambassador to the U.S. The issue is expected to be adjudicated soon by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
No matter how the court rules, the United States and other Pacific Rim nations will have to deal with China’s likely refusal to accept a ruling not in its favor and the security issues that will follow.
South China Sea: Bracing for Beijing’s Next Move
Posted April 28th, 2016 at 8:01 am (UTC-5)
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The United States should continue this trend by serving notice to the Chinese, privately at first, then publicly, that unless they can help in reducing tensions in the region…they will leave U.S. leaders with no choice but to reinforce their alliance capabilities. Then, the United States should do exactly that.
Does China Need More Friends in Asia?
Posted March 21st, 2016 at 12:46 pm (UTC-5)
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There could come a threshold beyond which the intersection of allied doubts and growing Chinese heft could compel China’s neighbors to “choose” China over the United States as their most consequential long-term partner—less out of strategic preference than of perceived imperatives.
China’s Self-Defeating Provocations in the South China Sea
Posted March 3rd, 2016 at 11:59 am (UTC-5)
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By its small-scale tactical military deployments on indefensible islands in the South China Sea, China is antagonizing all the other littoral countries, which are … turning to the United States and Japan … to increase military cooperation and to request additional security assistance
How to Oppose China’s Bid for Maritime Dominance
Posted February 26th, 2016 at 4:18 pm (UTC-5)
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In this deteriorating situation…a more consistent, robust set of American responses is essential….Deploy American Coast Guard cutters to the western Pacific…Expand cooperation with regional states…Impose explicit costs on Chinese aggressive behavior
Is the Philippines Triggering a ‘Duterte Effect’ in ASEAN?
[S]uggesting that Duterte’s embrace of China and snubbing of the United States might trigger some sort of domino effect in the region not only fundamentally misunderstands what drives alignments in Southeast Asia, but grossly exaggerates the Philippines’ status within the region and overestimates Duterte’s foreign policy.