Indonesia in the South China Sea: going it alone (Aaron L Connelly, Lowy Institute)

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/indonesia-south-china-sea-going-it-alone

Will a Russian naval base appear in the South China Sea? (Artyom Lukin, East Asia Forum)

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/11/02/will-a-russian-naval-base-appear-in-the-south-china-sea/

News by The Strategist

Duterte changes the South China Sea tone (Graeme Dobell)

Rodrigo Duterte is a maddening, murderous maverick who’s achieved a weird feat in the South China Sea (SCS)—delivering benefits to both China and the United States. His swing towards China offers Beijing all sorts of goodies, from the possibility of a bilateral deal in the SCS to a chance to unbalance the US rebalance.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/duterte-changes-south-china-sea-tone/

Colombia’s president sells the skin before catching the bear (Cesar Alvarez)

This year won’t only be remembered by who gets elected to the Oval Office. It’ll also be known as the year the Colombian public rejected a hard-fought peace deal with the leftist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/colombias-president-sells-skin-catching-bear/

The rules of extraction: Australia and the Timor Sea (Elisabeth Buchan)

On 19 September, Timor-Leste won a minor victory in its ongoing dispute with Australia over rights to resources in the Timor Sea. The UN Conciliation Commission, convened under the Annex V conciliation proceedings of UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), rejected Australia’s bid to block proceedings.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/rules-extraction-australia-timor-sea/

Power play in the South China Sea (Huiyun Feng, East Asia Forum)

In September 2016, Russia and China started their routine naval drill, ‘Joint Sea-2016’, off the coast of China’s Guangdong province. This was the fifth joint naval drill between the two nations since 2012, but the first to take place in the South China Sea. The decision to carry out this exercise in the South China Sea was announced after The Hague ruling in July, which China has strongly rejected.

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/10/06/power-play-in-the-south-china-sea/

China meanings in the South China Sea (Graeme Dobell, The Strategist)

International law has had its go at the waters of the South China Sea, and what a magnificent splash.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/china-meanings-south-china-sea/

Vietnam sends rocket launchers to the South China Sea (The Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/10/vietnam-sends-rocket-launchers-to-the-south-china-sea

China divides ASEAN in the South China Sea (Sampa Kundu, East Asia Forum)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s whirlwind tour of Brunei, Cambodia and Laos during 22–24 April 2016 courted support for his country’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. But the issue of China’s policy in the South China Sea has created a fault line across ASEAN, complicating the unity and effectiveness of the regional grouping

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/05/21/china-divides-asean-in-the-south-china-sea/

Dredging Up Disaster in the South China Sea (Robert Potter, The National Interest)

Chinese dredging operations add an interesting complication to the debate over sovereignty, control, and conflict in the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands are presently claimed by both China and the Philippines. Each party to the dispute makes claims that are intended to define the interpretation of events. However, it is not always the case that these interpretations fit the facts. As part of their efforts to assert their claim to ongoing sovereignty in the area, China is engaging in significant dredging operations there. The Chinese are involved in dredging operations on five different reefs and has created some 2,900 acres of land in the Spratlys. This behaviour sits within murky and sometimes undefined legal frameworks, but often clashes with Beijing’s official reasoning for their behavior.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/dredging-disaster-the-south-china-sea-15612

China: courting disaster in South China Sea (Philip Radford, ASPI The Strategist)

Peter Jennings is right to point out that siting surface-to-air missiles (SAM) on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands is a strategic game-changer for the South China Sea. It’s also the logical corollary to building fighter-length runways and installing long-range radar on reclaimed islands. In this great game of grandmother’s footsteps, it confirms what’s in store for the island bases China is building much further south, in the Spratly archipelago.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/china-courting-disaster-in-south-china-sea/

Finding Partners In The South China Sea (Grace Guo, Eurasia Review)

Despite ongoing distractions in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere, the U.S. government has continued to make steady progress towards its so-called “Pivot to Asia”, a foreign policy realignment that aims to forge greater security, economic and diplomatic ties between America and countries in the Asia-Pacific region with a view to countering the ambitions of an increasingly expansionist China.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/08032016-finding-partners-in-the-south-china-sea-oped/

China Rattled by Growing US-India Strategic Convergence on South China Sea Issue-Part II (Dr Subhash Kapila, SAAG)

In continuation of Paper No. 6081 dated 01 March 2016 a similar sabre-rattling by China against India has come to notice which seems to suggest that China using different mouth-pieces has begun a calibrated campaign against India to submit to Chinese pressures and back-off from any strategic proximity to the United States.

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/node/1955

China Rattled by Growing US-India Strategic Convergence on South China Sea Issues (Dr Subhash Kapila, SAAG)

Rattled by growing US-India strategic convergence on South China Sea issue, China in a manifestation of its imperial inclinations towards India has recently resorted to issuing proxy injunctions through its state-run media organ ‘The Global Times’ warning India to desist from any joint initiatives with the United States.

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/node/1952

India and the South China Sea dispute (Abhijit Singh, ORF)

The South China Sea (SCS) is witnessing a dramatic rise in maritime tensions. Last week, China landed two fighter jets on Woody island – a subset of the Paracel group of islands – just days after the PLA placed surface-to-air missiles at the same location. With a range of about 200 kilometers, the new HQ-9 missiles can target aircraft approaching China’s claimed spaces in the South China Sea. To add to regional worries, the latest satellite images of several of the Spratly Islands showed probable radar infrastructure, suggesting that the PLA may already have established full radar coverage over the SCS.

http://www.orfonline.org/research/india-and-the-south-china-sea-dispute/

South China Sea’s First Victim: China’s AIIB? (Stewart Taggart, Eurasia Review)

Could the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) suffer collateral damage from China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea? The risk is clearly there.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/16022016-south-china-seas-first-victim-chinas-aiib-analysis/

US-ASEAN Summit: Preparing for a New Normal (Emirza Adi Syailendra, The Diplomat)

The element of signaling surrounding the first U.S.-ASEAN summit in Sunnylands, California was strong. The White House decision to host ASEAN leaders at the same venue where U.S. President Barack Obama previously received Chinese president Xi Jinping symbolized the increasingly pivotal role the U.S. was according ASEAN as an institution.

http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/us-asean-summit-preparing-for-a-new-normal/

Taiwan’s South China Sea Dilemma (Shang-su Wu, The Diplomat)

The speech of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou on Taiping Island (also known as Itu Aba, among other names) on January 28 not only demonstrates his view on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, but also reveals the dilemma that confronts his successor, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen.

http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/taiwans-south-china-sea-dilemma/

US-India Patrols in the South China Sea? Maybe Not Just Yet (Ankit Panda, The Diplomat)

India and the United States are talking about the South China Sea, but are they ready to hold joint patrols there?

http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/us-india-patrols-in-the-south-china-sea-maybe-not-just-yet/

(South China Sea) Taiwan and Its South China Sea Peace Initiative (The Diplomat)

http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/taiwan-and-its-south-china-sea-peace-initiative/

(South China Sea) A Military Game of Chicken in the South China Sea? (The Diplomat)

http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/a-military-game-of-chicken-in-the-south-china-sea/

(Asia) Taiwan and the South China Sea: More steps in the right direction (Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2015/08/24-taiwan-south-china-sea-kuok