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2023-04-06 | BY SCSPI
From April 2nd to April 5th, 2023, the delegation of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) led by Director Hu Bo, visited the Philippines to exchange views on the China-Philippines relation and maritime-related issues, in order to promote academic and think tank connection with institutions in Manila.
2023-04-06 | BY Hu Bo, Yan Yan, Lei Xiaolu, Zheng Zhihua
On April 3rd, the SCSPI delegation visited Manila and attended an open forum titled “7th Bilateral Consultations Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea (SCS): PH-CN Relations Against Stress on the SCS” with Philippines local media, organized by the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies (ACPH).
2023-03-26 | BY SCSPI
In 2022, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US military placed great emphasis on military deterrence against China in the South China Sea, maintaining high-intensity activities including close-in reconnaissance operations, Taiwan Strait transits, forward presence, strategic deterrence, freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), military exercises and drills, and battlefield construction. Around 1,000 sorties of large reconnaissance aircraft conducted close-in reconnaissance, including reportedly reaching the Chinese mainland’s territorial air space several times. CSGs and amphibious ready groups (ARGs) entered the South China Sea eight times, down from 12 times in 2021, but the duration of each deployment increased, mostly for more than 10 days. At least 12 nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) appeared in the South China Sea, with a clear aim to exert deterrence. As the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan escalated the Taiwan Strait Situation sharply, the US military’s forward deployment and operations in the South China Sea strengthened the linkage with the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea.
2023-02-24 | BY Mark Hoskin
At no point did the Constitution suggest the waters within the bounds were included as territory, which would in any case have been violated in 1900 when islands further defined in the 7th April 1900 letter from the US to Spain and ‘embraced’ in the Cession were added, where according to the letter that was part of the preliminary negotiations according to the US in Palmas, the focus expanded from: “Any island within those described bounds.”To ascribe a water’s claim in the face of such language, when it is added to the domestic laws that were developed shortly afterwards and remained in force for a long period, is, quite frankly, absurd. To argue for a maritime limit within the bounds of the 1898 Treaty, the Phillipines is claiming that Spain and the US created an enclosed seas regime that was then ignored during a period when the US was supposedly against such laws.
2022-11-14 | BY Hu Bo
Confidence-building measures (CBMs) are planned procedures to prevent hostilities, avert escalation, reduce military tension, and build mutual trust between countries. They have been applied since the dawn of civilization on all continents. In the South China Sea, CBMs are generally evaluated as a little low, especially in the context of rapidly expanding economic relations. Moreover, there is a wide range of doubts about why China and ASEAN member states have taken so long to conclude the Code of Conduct (COC).