Verbal warnings, strongly worded statements and freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) – all seem to have fallen on deaf ears as Beijing continues its pursuit of militarising islands in the disputed South China Sea.Last week during Asia’s premier defence summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, United States (US) Secretary of Defense, James Mattis called out China for their assertive actions.

It has been just five years since China initiated its major land reclamation in the South China Sea, and the country has already shifted the territorial status quo in its favour – without facing any international pushback. The anniversary of the start of its island building underscores the transformed geopolitics in a corridor central to the international maritime order.

Throughout 2018, much of Asia has been shaken by the new and increasingly unpredictable dynamics in Sino-American relations. One year ago, United States (US) President Donald Trump returned from Beijing after his “state-plus” visit, which China hoped had finally laid his anti-Chinese campaign rhetoric to rest.

A murdered Saudi journalist. A scrapped Iran nuclear deal.

Southeast Asia has been a significant venue for strategic competition between the United States (US) and China for a long time.Given US President Donald Trump’s recent trend of policies towards the region, the US has seemed to adopt a more hands-off approach to the region.

In the 1940s, the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee predicted that the United States (US) and the Soviet Union would remain the world’s only two great powers.

At the recently concluded 33rd ASEAN Summit, ASEAN member states expressed their desire to complete the Single Draft Negotiating Text for the Code of Conduct (COC) by next year to resolve the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

In recent years, we have seen the renewal of a phenomenon that seemed to have passed into history with the end of the Cold War: fierce and potentially violent competition between the most powerful countries on the globe.

China and the United States (US) crossed swords Saturday ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, duelling over protectionism, trade tariffs and "chequebook diplomacy" as they laid out sharply contrasting visions for the Pacific Rim region.In combative back-to-back speeches at a business forum held on a hulking cruise ship moored in Port Moresby, Xi Jinping and US Vice President Mike Pence pulled few punches.The feisty exchanges laid the ground for what could be

Over the past five years, issues in the South China Sea have only grown more complex. Claiming a historical right over most of the South China Sea and disregarding the Philippines’ victory against its claims at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, China’s presence in these disputed waters has become more prominent.