Author: Editorial Board (Editorial Board)

Rumors are circulating that Vietnam is considering leasing Cam Ranh Bay or some of its islands in the South China Sea to the United States on a long-term basis as a supply base and/or stop over point as a counter to recent aggressiveness in the South China Sea.

Once again, Chinese assertiveness against Vietnam in the South China Sea is on the rise. Beginning on April 3, a Chinese coast guard ship sunk a Vietnamese fishing vessel in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands, and ten days later, on April 13, Beijing redeployed the controversial Haiyang Dizhi 8 geological survey ship, which it had used last year to harass international drilling near Vanguard Bank, to Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). And on April 18, Beijing announced that it had established administrative control over the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands.

FURIOUS fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines have called on their Governments to stand up to China ahead of this summer's annual fishing ban in the South China Sea.

Credit photo – This aerial photo taken through a glass window of a military plane shows part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, May 11, 2015. TAIPEI, TAIWAN – China has renamed scores of islets and underwater landforms in the South China Sea, a move some analysts say is intended to push...

“After the outbreak of the coronavirus in China in January, rumors began to surface in diplomatic circles that Vietnam was sounding out other ASEAN members with a proposal to extend its term as ASEAN Chair for another year,” analyst Carl Thayer told me. “the coronavirus prevented ASEAN heads of government from meeting face-to-face and deprived Vietnam of the opportunity to determine if there was consensus on its suggestion to extend its term as ASEAN Chair.”