The South China Sea is of strategic and economic importance to Beijing and the US, setting up a potential power struggle that could spark conflict.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, arrives at a military camp in Quezon City, Philippines, on Feb. 2, 2023.
Rolex Dela Pena/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Our analysis is the first commissioned by the Department of Defence on the specific threat of prolonged maritime supply-chain disruptions due to conflict in the South China and East China seas.
While there are good reasons not to exaggerate these events, the bad news is these incidents are almost certain to continue. But we shouldn’t frame them as if we’re in the brink of war.
Activists hold slogans as they protest against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea outside the Chinese consulate in Makati, Philippines in November 2021.
(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Hugh White warns of a potential war between the US and China, drawing lessons from the first and second world wars to explore how Australia might respond to such a conflict – and where to draw a line.
Leaders of the ‘Quad’ alliance, including new member, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, left.
EPA-EFE/Yuichi Yamazaki/pool
The security landscape in the Asia-Pacific region is shifting in the face of China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during the International Migration Review Forum on May 19, 2022, at United Nations headquarters in New York.
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The West isn’t exactly diligent about following international rules of law. It conveniently ignores or sidesteps global rules-based order when it’s convenient.
The USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz sailing in the South China Sea in July 2020.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Samantha Jetzer/US Navy/AP
A recent report rom the US Defence Ministry says China has likely considered a military base in Indonesia, among several other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump waves a Vietnam flag as he meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, waving an American flag, in Hanoi in February 2019.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Despite the racial unrest that has rocked the U.S. for months, President Donald Trump finds support among some racialized communities, including Vietnamese Americans. Why?
The USS Ronald Reagan: the aircraft carrier carried out exercises in the South China Sea in mid August 2020.
Francis R. Malasig/EPA
As tensions in the disputed waters mount, it’s important to understand how this conflict began and what international law says about freedom of navigation and competing maritime claims.