Vice President Joe Biden on July 14, 2016 speaking to sailors on USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74). USNI News Photo
ABOARD AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS JOHN C. STENNIS – Vice President Joe Biden thanked sailors aboard aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) for affirming U.S. presence and partnership with Asian allies during its seven-month Pacific deployment and denouncing Chinese territorial expansion. Read More
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and People’s Liberations Army Navy head Adm. Wu Shegli.
The U.S. Chief of Naval Operations is headed to Beijing next week to meet his Chinese counterpart, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday. Read More
US Marines with the Black Sea Rotational Force, fires TOW anti-tank missile on July 8 in Bulgaria. US Marine Corps Photo
By quadrupling spending to counter a mounting threat from Moscow, the United States’ military emphasis in Europe has shifted from reassuring allies and partners to deterring Russia from “exercising malign influence [and using] coercion” to bully countries on its western and southern borders, witnesses told a key House panel Wednesday. Read More
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in South China Sea. Xinhua Photo
China has made clear that it refuses to accept an international arbitration panel’s ruling against its territorial claims in the South China Sea, but whether that stance leads to increased military tensions between Beijing and the United States or opens the door for broader negotiations is an open question. Read More
The following is the July 13, 2016 People’s Republic of China response to the July 12, 2016 ruling on their South China Sea territorial claims by an international tribunal, issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read More
China’s Ambassador to U.S. Cui Tiankai in 2012. USDA Photo
The Chinese ambassador to the United States said Tuesday’s ruling against Beijing in its dispute with the Philippines by an international tribunal was “a clear attempt use legal instruments for political purposes” and has “taken place with military coercion” as a backdrop. Read More
A naval soldier of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) views through a pair of binoculars onboard China’s first aircraft carrier Liaoning as it visits a military harbour on the South China Sea. Xinhua Photo
Long before Tuesday’s ruling by an international arbitration panel against it, China has been moving toward turning an international waterway such as the South China Sea “into a Caribbean” where Beijing exerts its peacetime dominance, a leading Japanese defense expert said. Read More
Aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) and guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) in the South China Sea. US Navy Photo
A vocal member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling for the U.S. Navy to challenge Chinese claims to artificial islands soon near the Philippines following a decision from an international tribunal that ruled against several Chinese claims in the South China Sea. Read More
The following is the a July 12, 2016 ruling from the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Arbitration Tribunal through the Permanent Court of Arbitration (at the Hague) on China and the Philippines overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Read More
Scarborough Shoal
Neither what China will do following the ruling on its dispute with the Philippines over coral reefs in the South China Sea is clear, nor is the United States response beyond “preserving space for a diplomatic solution.” Read More
