China

The visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Palawan and yet another instance of China’s aggressive actions in our waters have once again brought to the fore the enduring tensions over the South China Sea and the underlying cultures that form the outlines of this war. The Philippine government has announced its intention to write a note verbale in …

Saturday, November 26 marked the beginning of municipal elections in Taiwan, which President Tsai Ing-wen has framed as a statement to the world about the island’s will to maintain its democracy in the face of China’s growing bellicosity. The elections for mayors, county heads, and local council men are nominally about internal matters like as the COVID-19 epidemic and criminality, …

On Friday, November 25, China recorded 35,183 new COVID-19 infections, of which 3,474 were symptomatic and 31,709 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission announced on Saturday, November 26, establishing a new daily record for the third consecutive day. This compares to 32,943 new cases a day earlier, of which 3,103 symptomatic and 29,840 asymptomatic illnesses are separately counted in China. …

The Biden administration has prohibited the certification of Huawei Technologies and ZTE’s new telecommunications equipment because they represent “an intolerable danger” to US national security. The US Federal Communications Commission said on November 25 that it has adopted the final regulations, which prohibit the sale or import of surveillance equipment manufactured by Chinese companies Dahua Technology Co, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital …

The Philippines addressed a letter verbale to China requesting “clarification” over a recent incident in which Chinese coast guard personnel “forcibly collected” debris from Philippine Navy personnel in the West Philippine Sea. In an interview with CNN Philippines on Thursday, November 24, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo confirmed the move, stating that the Marcos administration wanted to hear about the conflict …

Friday, November 18th, Trend Micro revealed that they had found a worldwide spear-phishing effort conducted by a China-based threat actor, with a particular focus on Asia Pacific nations including Myanmar, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, and Taiwan. Spear-phishing is a sort of phishing that is highly targeted. According to Trend Micro’s definition, whereas phishing strategies may rely on technologies that transmit …

During what Malacaang described as a “historic” bilateral encounter, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed a variety of topics, including the South China Sea. Marcos and Xi met on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Bangkok on November 17, late in the afternoon. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a …

In August, when Chinese authorities detained a Taiwanese citizen in China for an alleged violation of security rules, officials in Taipei wrote signals to Beijing expressing concern and requesting specifics. According to a Taipei-based individual familiar with the Taiwanese government’s China policy, many of the SMS and faxes that Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has delivered to Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office …

When Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was asked about the status of the long-awaited Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, he paused and moaned audibly. “As far as the Code of Conduct is concerned, nothing new has transpired. We just repeated ourselves repeatedly. [We require] a Code of Conduct… After his participation at the 40th and 41st Association of …

The long-awaited meeting between US Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for Monday in Indonesia, is expected to include discussions on Taiwan, human rights, Ukraine, and harmful economic practices, with the goal of “building a floor” under the strained relationship between the world’s two largest economies, according to a senior US official. The primary objective of …