China will hold naval exercises in the South China Sea (SCS) on Saturday, its maritime authority said, after a week of recrimination from Western powers over its military ambitions across the Pacific region.The exercises, set to take place in the sea less than 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) off the coast of south China's Hainan province, come as the United States (US) leads warnings over China's growing military and economic presence in an area spanning from the SCS to the Pacific Islan

Much of the world remains focused on the grisly developments in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army continues to commit war crimes against a sovereign country he claims is an inalienable part of Russia. Meanwhile, the story in Hong Kong has gone from very bad to even worse. In a farcical selection process dressed up as democracy, the Communist Party of China (CPC) recently installed a former policeman, John Lee, as the new chief executive of its puppet reg

China's premier called for more to be done to stabilise the world's second-largest economy, issuing an unusually stark warning as the country's zero-COVID strategy bites into growth.China is the last major economy welded to a policy of mass testing and hard lockdowns to eliminate virus clusters, but the strict curbs have battered businesses.Restrictions around the nation in recent months – including on the manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Shanghai, as well as the breadbasket

Philippine president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr said Thursday he would uphold an international ruling against Beijing over the disputed South China Sea (SCS), insisting he would not let China trample on Manila's maritime rights.China claims almost all of the resource-rich waterway, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, with competing claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.Beijing has ignored a 2016 decision by The Hague-based Permanent Cou

China has put forward plans to dramatically expand security and economic cooperation with South Pacific nations, in what one regional leader called a thinly veiled effort to lock them into "Beijing's orbit".The wide-ranging draft agreement and a five-year plan, both obtained by AFP, will be the subject of discussion during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's tour of Pacific nations, which began Thursday.The package would offer 10 small island states millions of dollars in C

Leaders of Japan, India, Australia and the United States (US) warned Tuesday against attempts to "change the status quo by force" as concerns grow about whether China could invade self-ruled Taiwan.A joint statement by the so-called Quad bloc avoided any direct mention of China's growing military power in the region, but left little doubt about where its concerns lie.The carefully worded document also made reference to the conflict in Ukraine, but without offering any joint pos

China faced new accusations Tuesday that it was sanctioning abuses of Uyghurs at the "highest levels", as a vast document leak came out during a controversial visit by the United Nations (UN) rights chief.The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang as part of a years-long crackdown the United States (US) and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a "genocide".China

President Joe Biden vowed Monday that United States (US) forces would defend Taiwan militarily if China attempted to take control of the island by force, prompting Beijing to warn that America was "playing with fire."Speaking in Tokyo, Biden compared China's threat to self-ruled Taiwan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, delivering his strongest remarks to date on the issue amid rising tensions over Beijing's growing economic and military power.Asked if Washington was will

With global attention focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s territorial expansionism in Asia – especially its expanding border conflict with India – has largely fallen off the international community’s radar. Yet, in the vast glaciated heights of the Himalayas, the world’s demographic titans have been on a war footing for over two years, and the chances of violent clashes rise almost by the day.The confrontation began in May 2020.

The renaissance of the friendly and good bilateral relations between the Philippines and China despite existing differences is one of the legacies of the Duterte administration that yielded tangible and concrete benefits for both countries and their peoples. The Philippines-China bilateral relations have not only improved under the Duterte administration but have been upgraded to a “comprehensive strategic cooperation.” Indeed, the ties between the two countries have improved dramati