Lee Wee News

China expressed anger on Monday after a group of Filipino protesters landed on a disputed Philippine-held island in the disputed South China Sea. About 50 protesters, most of them students, reached Thitu island in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday in a stand against what they say is Beijing's creeping invasion of the Philippine exclusive economic zone, said Eugenio Bito-onon, the island's mayor. China claims almost all the South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. China was "strongly dissatisfied" by what the Filipinos had done…

Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday. At least 700 people were injured, more than 71 seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the official Xinhua news agency said two fires were still burning. Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometres away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.

Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday. At least 700 people were injured, more than 71 seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the official Xinhua news agency said two fires were still burning. Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometres away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.

China will soon complete some of its land reclamation on the Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating that Beijing is close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. The Foreign Ministry did not identify which of the seven reefs undergoing reclamation would be finished soon. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said their statement was already "quite detailed". China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, a move that has alarmed several countries in Asia and drawn growing criticism from Washington. There have been recent tensions between the Chinese navy and the U.S. military around the Spratlys.

The death toll from a Chinese cruise ship which capsized on the Yangtze River rose to 103 on Friday, state television said. China's Central Television said on its microblog that 339 people remain missing and only 14 survivors have been found. Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee

Chinese authorities began late on Thursday to right a cruise ship that capsized on the Yangtze River, after divers sent to search for survivors found no signs of life inside. With only 14 survivors found, including the captain and chief engineer, since the ship carrying 456 people overturned during a freak tornado on Monday night, the rescue mission has now become an operation to recover hundreds of bodies. "In a situation in which the overall judgment is that there is no chance of people being alive, we could start the work of righting the boat," transport ministry spokesman Xu Chengguang told a news conference. State television confirmed that the righting operation had begun.

Dozens of people broke through a police cordon on Wednesday as they marched towards the site of a sunken cruise ship in the Yangtze River to demand news of missing relatives. Rescuers searched for more than 400 missing people, many of them elderly, but hopes were fading of finding more survivors from the worst shipping disaster in modern Chinese history. Only 14 people, including the ship's captain, have been found alive since the ship capsized in a tornado on Monday night with 456 people on board. Just 29 bodies have been recovered. Frustrated by the scarcity of information coming from local authorities, about 80 family members hired a bus to take them from Nanjing to Jianli county in Hubei, an eight-hour journey. They started walking towards the rescue site late on Wednesday night.

Three years before the cruise ship he was steering capsized in the Yangtze River, the Chinese government honoured captain Zhang Shuwen for saving the life of an elderly man who had suffered an asthma attack. Zhang is now the focus of attention after his ship, the Eastern Star, sank on Monday night during a fierce storm, in what may be China's worst maritime disaster in almost 70 years. At least 19 bodies have been found and more than 400 people are missing. Zhang escaped alive and is in police custody, although he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Until the incident, Zhang was regarded as an effective captain. He received an "outstanding employee" award by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation last year…

The United States said on Friday that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea, a development that Republican Sen. Brent Colburn, a Pentagon spokesman traveling with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, said the United States was aware of the weapons. McCain, chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, said the move would escalate tensions but not lead to conflict. "It is a disturbing development and escalatory development, one which heightens our need to make the Chinese understand that their actions are in violation of international law and their actions are going to be condemned by everyone in the world," he said at a news conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnamese and Philippine troops played soccer and sang karaoke on a South China Sea island on Wednesday in a sign of the growing security ties between the two Southeast Asian nations most at odds with Beijing over the contested waterway. Cooperation has blossomed between Hanoi and Manila since they shelved decades of enmity over their competing claims in the Spratly archipelago to try to counter China, whose creation of artificial islands in the region will allow it to project power deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. Senior Philippine naval officials said soccer and volleyball games were being played on the Philippine-held island of Northeast Cay.

China hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the building of two lighthouses in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Tuesday, a move that is likely to escalate tensions in a region already jittery about Beijing's maritime ambitions. China's Ministry of Transport hosted the ceremony for the construction of two multi-functional lighthouses on Huayang Reef and Chigua Reef on the disputed Spratly islands, state news agency Xinhua said, defying calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity. The reefs are known in English as Cuateron Reef and Johnson South Reef. The Ministry of Transport did not answer calls for comment. Last year, the Philippines accused China of reclaiming land on Johnson South Reef, apparently to build an airstrip.

Vietnam said it resolutely opposes a temporary Chinese ban on fishing in the Gulf of Tonkin, the latest in a series of sovereignty disputes in and around the South China Sea. China's ban came as the neighbours seek to patch up ties since a row in May last year when China deployed a $1-billion oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam. That led to confrontation at sea and violent anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam. China's May 16-Aug. 1 fishing ban violated international law and Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdictional rights, Vietnam's foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. China introduced the annual ban in 1999 "to promote the sustainable development of the fishing industry in the South China Sea and protect the fundamental interests of fishermen"…

The United States and China clashed over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea on Saturday, as China's foreign minister asserted its sovereignty to reclaim reefs saying its determination to protect its interests is "as hard as a rock". After a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi showed no sign of backing down despite Kerry urging China to take action to reduce tension in the South China Sea. "With regard to construction on the Nansha islands and reefs, this is fully within the scope of China's sovereignty," Wang told reporters, using the Chinese name for the Spratly islands. "I would like to reaffirm that China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity is as hard as a rock," he said.

China on Thursday sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defence as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing that the reclamation and building work in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea was needed partly because of the risk of typhoons in an area with a lot of shipping that is far from land. "We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services" for China and neighbouring countries, Hua said.

China on Thursday sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defence as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing that the reclamation and building work in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea was needed partly because of the risk of typhoons in an area with a lot of shipping that is far from land. "We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services" for China and neighbouring countries, Hua said.

China on Thursday defended the actions of a coast guard vessel in the disputed South China Sea after the Philippines accused it of ramming three fishing boats and urged Manila to increase "indoctrination" of its fishermen. The Philippines said on Wednesday that a Chinese coast guard ship had rammed three Philippine fishing boats in the disputed Scarborough Shoal area last week and Manila had protested to Beijing over the incident. The news drew a stern rebuke from China's Foreign Ministry, which said that last Thursday, many fishing vessels from the Philippines were "illegally lingering" in the waters surrounding the Scarborough Shoal and did not abide by China's management.

China on Monday hit back at "irresponsible remarks" from the United States which has called on Beijing to stop a land reclamation project in the disputed South China Sea that could be large enough to accommodate an airstrip. China lays claim to almost all of the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich with minerals and oil-and-gas deposits and one of Asia's biggest possible flashpoints. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims. The comments by China's foreign ministry signal that Beijing would firmly reject proposals by any country to freeze any activity that may raise tension. Media reports over the weekend cited U.S.

U.S. and Chinese military officials will hold talks on rules of behavior at the Pentagon on Tuesday and Wednesday, a U.S. official said, days after the United States denounced a "dangerous" Chinese jet intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane. Last Tuesday, a Chinese fighter pilot flew acrobatic maneuvers around the U.S. Navy's P-8 Poseidon antisubmarine and reconnaissance plane, crossing over and under it in international airspace over the South China Sea, the Pentagon said. At one point, the jet flew wingtip-to-wingtip about 10 yards (9 meters) from the Poseidon, then performed a barrel roll over the top of it. The U.S. defense official said other close intercepts occurred in March, April and May.

Vietnam is taking "dangerous actions" at sea, China said on Tuesday, after the two countries traded accusations over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in disputed waters in the South China Sea. China also urged Vietnam to immediately stop all disruptive and damaging activities at sea. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang made the remarks at a regular briefing. The fishing boat sank not far from a Chinese oil rig, which has set off a territorial row between the two countries. Each side has blamed the other over the sinking. Vietnam has said the rig is in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf. China - which claims almost the entire South China Sea - says the rig is operating within its waters. (By Sui-Lee Wee)

China warned Japan on Friday to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying talks aimed at a solution. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei in one of Asia's most intractable disputes and a possible flashpoint. It also has a separate maritime dispute with Japan over islands in the East Sea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday expressed concern about regional tensions that he said were stoked by China's "unilateral drilling" after China moved a giant oil rig into disputed waters, a moved denounced by the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States.

More than 3,000 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Vietnam, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, following deadly rioting that stemmed from an outpouring of rage over Chinese oil drilling in a disputed area of the South China Sea. The violence was triggered by China's positioning of a $1 billion oil rig in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Hanoi, a move described by the United States as provocative. It is the worst breakdown in ties between the two Communist neighbours since a short border war in 1979. The evacuation followed days of clashes between Vietnamese rioters and Chinese workers. Crowds of thousands massed as rioters turned against Chinese workers and Chinese-owned businesses…