Prospects for East Asia in the third quarter of 2015

Subject Prospects for East Asia in the third quarter of 2015. Significance China's economy is still slowing, and President Xi Jinping is further tightening his hold over an increasingly illiberal political system, but few grave consequences are visible yet. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's leadership remains unchallenged. Tokyo's relations with Beijing and Seoul have warmed slightly, but tensions in the South China Sea have risen.

Subject The outlook for deepening defence links between Japan and Malaysia. Significance Chinese Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng warned visiting Japanese lawmakers on June 29 that the South China Sea maritime disputes have "nothing to do with Japan". This comes amid new developments in South-east Asian governments' efforts to strengthen security cooperation with Japan. Among them is the agreement between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 25 to elevate bilateral ties to the level of 'Strategic Partnership'. This reflects Malaysia's growing concern over China's actions in the South China Sea, which are increasingly expanding southwards, affecting Malaysian-claimed territorial waters. Malaysian officials on June 9 announced a complaint to China over a Chinese coast guard vessel near Luconia Shoals. Impacts The Philippines's armed forces are less powerful than Malaysia's, implying more scope to develop Japan-Philippines defence ties. Vietnam, and perhaps Indonesia, may be the next ASEAN countries to seek deeper defence ties with Japan. Malaysian criticism of China over the South China Sea could see a more assertive ASEAN over disputed maritime claims.


Subject South-east Asia's relations with Russia. Significance Russia’s ties with the West are deteriorating. South-east Asia offers Moscow important diplomatic and economic opportunities. Impacts As Russia-China strategic alignment strengthens, Moscow and Beijing will increase coordination and cooperation in South-east Asia. Advanced Russian defence technology will further strengthen Beijing against South-east Asian claimants in the South China Sea dispute. Washington will try to encourage South-east Asian countries to buy US rather than Russian weapons.


Significance The announcement came days after an international ruling under the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) dismissing China's maritime claims and island-building in the South China Sea -- a ruling that Beijing has rejected. This will affect an aspect of China-South-east Asia relations that has gone under-noticed amid the maritime controversies: security and defence cooperation. Impacts Despite growing Chinese interest, Thailand will still seek security ties with Washington. As a beneficiary of competing Chinese and US diplomacy, Myanmar will try to balance the two powers' advances. The further China pushes defence interests and ties in ASEAN, the harder ASEAN will find reaching common security positions. South-east Asian countries will stay ready for maritime skirmishes; they will need Western military and technological support.


Subject US Coast Guard's aims in South-east Asia. Significance As part of US President Donald Trump’s push for full-spectrum competition with China, the US Coast Guard (USCG) has been tasked with a more active role in the western Pacific. The United States promotes ‘freedom of navigation’ in the South China Sea, waters in which there are conflicting claims between China, Taiwan and several South-east Asian countries. Impacts China’s ability to coerce South-east Asian claimants in the South China Sea will grow as its navy and coast guard deploy more vessels there. As ASEAN’s chair for 2020, Vietnam will try to push back against Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea while maintaining ASEAN unity. Negotiations next year between ASEAN and China for a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea in will be impeded by contentious issues.


1969 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 91-94
Author(s):  
Michael B.W. Fyhn ◽  
Henrik I. Petersen ◽  
Anders Mathiesen ◽  
Lars H. Nielsen ◽  
Stig A.S. Pedersen ◽  
...  

A number of sedimentary basins of various ages are located onand offshore Vietnam (Fig. 1). Some of them have significant petroleum resources and have thus attracted interest from industry and academia (Rangin et al. 1995; Matthews et al. 1997; Lee & Watkins 1998; Lee et al. 2001). Moreover, Vietnam is located in a position central to the understanding of the geological development of South-East Asia (Hall & Morley 2004). The structural style and the stratigraphy of the Vietnamese basins thus provide a valuable record about the development of South-East Asia throughout the Phanerozoic and the subsequent Eocene as well as younger deformation associated with the collision and indentation of India into Eurasia and the opening of the South China Sea (Fyhn et al. 2009a, 2010a).


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1207-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Li ◽  
Qi-hang Xu ◽  
Xiao-tian Wang ◽  
Hou-wen Lin ◽  
Yan-hua Lu

A novel marine actinomycete, designated LHW63021T, was isolated from a marine sponge, genus Craniella, collected in the South China Sea. A polyphasic approach was applied to characterize the taxonomic position of this strain. The strain was found to have scarce aerial mycelia that differentiated into spore chains. The cell-wall hydrolysates contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. Glucose, galactose, mannose and madurose were found in the whole-cell hydrolysates. The dominant polar lipids were phosphatidylinositol and diphosphatidylglycerol. MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H8) were the predominant menaquinones. The major fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, iso-C18 : 0, 10-methyl C17 : 0 and C18 : 1 ω9c. The DNA G+C content based on the draft genome sequence was 72.0 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain LHW63021T was a member of the genus Actinomadura and had the highest similarity to Actinomadura echinospora DSM 43163T (97.3 %). Phylogenetic trees supported their close relationship. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between the whole genome sequences of strain LHW63021T and A. echinospora DSM 43163T were 79.13 and 23.20 %, respectively. The evidence from the polyphasic study shows that strain LHW63021T represents a novel species of the genus Actinomadura , for which the name Actinomadura craniellae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LHW63021T (=DSM 106125T=CCTCC AA 2018015T).


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (24) ◽  
pp. 14713-14722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Shi ◽  
Hugues Goosse ◽  
François Klein ◽  
Sen Zhao ◽  
Ting Liu ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
Arfin Sudirman

The South China Sea conflict has been a highly sensitive issue for the last 5 years in ASEAN. China and the US have been using the South China Sea as the New Cold War Arena of power and military hegemonic competition in the South East Asia region. This has been a major challenge for ASEAN as the only regional organization in the South East Asia region that has direct in the area must take major role in managing and resolving the dispute peacefully even though ASEAN has no defense pact like NATO. This paper argues that ASEAN, at this moment, must maintain its role as a mediator and independent-negotiator in the region but at the same time apply its principle of gradually adapting with the new international system. This article also suggests that in the future, ASEAN can take a major role in the governance of the South China Sea and the South East Asia region.


Significance Increased anxiety over Chinese land reclamation in the South China Sea, particularly its construction of an airstrip and harbour on Fiery Cross Reef, is drawing considerable attention to US policy in the region where US allies have been pressing for greater involvement. Impacts Regional and US rhetoric on Chinese reclamation may provoke an increased demonstration of US military engagement in the region. However, the size and scale of these activities will be highly dependent on the pace and character of Chinese activities. This issue is likely to be featured conspicuously by Carter at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore. It will almost certainly raise difficulties during Chinese President Xi Jinping's September visit to Washington. Given Hillary Clinton's previous statements, pursuing a 'tough' China policy may become a prominent theme of her presidential bid.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document