Journal of International Studies

The unbelievably small amount of aid Beijing is offering Manila marks a new era of sneer diplomacy.

How Myanmar is working to wriggle itself free from the "empire next door."

In early September, China hosted the 10th China-ASEAN Expo in southern Chinese city of Nanning.  There, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang glowingly characterized the last ten years as a “golden decade” of growing economic ties between China and the countries of Southeast Asia, all of which are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  He now foresaw that the next decade would be even better—a “diamond decade.” Together with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visits to Indonesia and Malaysia and his high-level meetings at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that would soon follow, Li’s remarks appeared to mark the start of a new charm offensive in Southeast Asia.  China’s last charm offensive, despite Li’s depiction of a “golden decade,” had sputtered out at the end of that decade, overshadowed by China’s growing economic and political assertiveness on land and at sea.  Although China’s disputes with its maritime neighbors have drawn mor...

MANILA - Nearly 600 kilometers southwest of the Philippine capital, workers are building an access road to link the mainland of Luzon to Oyster Bay on the island province of Palawan. The pristine island is a major tourist destination, but the project is not aimed at luring foreign travelers, rather to transform the bay into what officials are referring to as a "mini Subic".  Like Subic Bay, north of Manila and once the site of the United States' largest military facility in the Asia-Pacific, Oyster Bay's cove includes a deep natural harbor capable of hosting large vessels, including warships. Unlike Subic, Oyster Bay opens directly on the South China Sea, strategically situated 150 kilometers from hotly contested and potentially hydrocarbon-rich maritime territories in the Spratly Islands.  President Benigno Aquino's government has allocated around 500 million pesos (US$12 million) to Oyster Bay's initial groundwork, with piers, dry docks and ship...

Vietnam is once more the scene of superpower confrontation, as deep rifts continue to churn the waters of the South China Sea. However, Vietnam can now deal with ambitious global powers from a position of independence and relative geopolitical strength.  The escalating rivalry between China and United States offers both risks and rewards to the leaders in Hanoi, as the world's two most powerful countries seek deeper strategic and economic influence in Southeast Asia.  Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's high-profile visit last week to Hanoi highlights Vietnam's importance to China's regional ambitions. The visit was aimed at improving China's often-turbulent relationship with neighboring Vietnam.  Li returned to Beijing with an impressive set of economic and political agreements, including an arrangement to begin joint exploration of natural resources in the Gulf of Tonkin, where the two countries dispute their maritime border. The cooperation coul...

On September 3, Philippine Secretary of Defense Voltaire Gazmin presented aerial photographs taken of Scarborough Shoal to a congressional hearing. These photographs were taken by the Philippines Air Force a few days earlier and showed what appeared to be thirty concrete blocks, two vertical posts and a white bouy in the lagoon. Secretary Gazmin speculated that the concrete blocks “could be a prelude to construction” and were a violation of the 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. A day later, the Department of National Defense reported that new photographs had identified a total of 75 concrete blocks at Scarborough Shoal. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto del Rosario announced that the Philippines intended to file a diplomatic protest with China. An official Chinese spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a question about the concrete blocks by stating, “what the Philippine side said is not true.” China released its own pho...

When China opened its doors to foreign investment in the early 1990s, companies around the world could not contain their excitement at the possibility of entering the world’s largest market. With a population north of 1 billion people, China seemed to present endless opportunities in almost every sector imaginable. Boardrooms across the globe became fixated on entering the market. Companies hastily started looking for office space and set out to find local partners so that they could somehow start doing business in the Middle Kingdom. In all this haste and excitement, however, many companies failed to consider carefully whether their businesses really were suitable candidates for market entry. That same sort of hysteria is happening again,  this time in Myanmar , a country opening after years of military dictatorship and isolation. Myanmar is considered one of the world’s last economic frontiers and companies are clamoring to get their products and ...

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared to side with ASEAN and rebuke China on the South China Sea dispute during the East Asian Summit in Brunei this week. The sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea predictably commanded much attention during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and East Asia Summits this past week. During his otherwise conciliatory speech at the latter event, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang forcefully made the case for China’s long-standing preference of trying to resolve the disputes bilaterally with only the parties directly involved. “Territorial and maritime disputes between countries in this region should be resolved by the countries concerned through friendly consultation,” Li said during the speech,  according to  state-run media outlets in China. Speaking shortly after Li at the same forum, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed to directly refute China’s position, although with some diplomatic subtlety. “A...

Southeast Asia’s annual summit season has just ended. Indonesia hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, while Brunei, as current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), hosted the ASEAN Summit, East Asia Summit and other related ASEAN meetings. Media coverage contrasted President Barack Obama’s “no show” with President Xi Jinping’s successful debut in the region. Xi became the first person to address a joint sitting of Indonesia’s parliament, and also paid a state visit to Malaysia. Much of the media coverage and commentary by analysts rightly stressed Xi’s major economic initiatives, including the  establishment  of an Asian infrastructure development bank and a new 100 billion yuan ($US16.3 billion)  currency swap agreement  between the Chinese and Indonesian central banks. Little notice was given to Beijing's defense and security agenda, however. For example, in Xi’s address to the Indonesian parliament on October ...