TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Chinese scholars have had scores of reports published in internationally recognized scientific journals containing a mention of their country’s ‘nine-dash line,’ the core of its claim to the hotly contested South China Sea, an American research institution said this month. China is using the journal pieces to promote its claimed demarcation line, Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Thuy Anh wrote in a July 15 article for the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Center for...

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - The passage of a Chinese civilian ship across part of Malaysia’s continental shelf this month shows China aims to bolster its claim over a widely contested sea in the face of U.S. opposition, observers of the dispute say. The Sansha II, a 400-seat transport vessel, parked briefly at James Shoal around July 16 and then returned to a base closer to the Chinese mainland, according to ship activity maps, a U.S. think tank and a U.S. Naval War College researcher. The submerged...

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - American lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills in the past two years to improve Taiwan’s defenses and raise its international exposure as legislators backed by President Donald Trump step up resistance against China, an old rival of Taipei, analysts say. At least five pro-Taiwan bills have appeared in the U.S. Congress since February 2018, an unusually fast pace. It’s largely because President Trump has championed Taiwan’s cause for self-rule since his inauguration in...

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Australia’s recent shift to a more combative stance against China will tighten political and military coordination among U.S.-allied nations that want to check Beijing’s maritime expansion, analysts said this week. Canberra broke its neutral stance toward China with harsh pledges and comments in May, June and July due to a series of problems with the communist government, despite brisk trade ties. In particular, Australia openly backed the United States last month by sending...

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - The Philippines has become a COVID-19 outlier in East Asia with a runaway caseload because initial stay-home orders ended early and people struggle to practice social distancing despite strict rules, local observers say. New reported cases spiked during the past month, leaving the archipelago with a cumulative total of about 120,000. Daily cases set a record Tuesday of 6,277. Now cities have shut down again, threatening access to workplaces in a country where many people...