With maritime disputes between China and its neighbors deepening, and with China moving to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone and conducting land reclamation projects in its nearby seas, tensions in the Asia-Pacific region are simmering. Human trafficking, piracy, and nuclear proliferation remain key challenges for the region, and thus for the United States, which seeks to shore up regional support with ambitious free trade agreements and enhanced military cooperation.
Latest in Asia Pacific
While there are no legal sanctions for violating the Taiwan Travel Act, that does not mean the legislation lacks any legal force.
The Taiwan Travel Act is politically significant despite its limited legal force.
The 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea are already fraught with hard national security choices and the games have only just begun.
How a "dual freeze" of U.S.-ROK military exercises and North Korean military tests could present an opportunity for temporary stablility in East Asia.
Six components of Tillerson's Asia trip require careful reading: his assurances to allies; “20 years of failure”; sanctions; military options; negotiations; and the all-important China audience of one, Xi Jinping.
While restricting coal imports from North Korea satisfies some of China’s existing obligations to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the ban also serves domestic policy interests in limiting foreign coal imports and reducing domestic consumption of coal-fired energy.
Proposed changes to China's maritime safety law suggest that Beijing is consolidating a putative legal basis for asserting its security interests and may be readying for more pronounced conflict in the South China Sea.
China continued to react critically to the Trump administration’s emerging position on the South China Sea.
A brief filed by the U.S. government gives its support to a lower court decision in Cooper v. TEPCO, now in the 9th Circuit.
Water Wars is a weekly roundup of the latest news, analysis, and opinions related to ongoing tensions in the South and East China Seas.