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China’s Risky Power Play in the South China SeaChina’s coast guard ships have swarmed and collided with Philippine boats. A New FlashpointFor months, the latest target of China’s power play was a Philippine coast guard ship, the Teresa Magbanua. Philippine coast guard Chinese ships Noon, June 17 A group of Chinese ships moved to block the Philippine vessel. SECOND THOMAS SHOAL SABINA SHOAL A Chinese ship began tailing a Philippine ship around 8 a.m. More Chinese ships waited here. 6 p.m. SECOND THOMAS SHOAL SABINA SHOAL The Chinese ships followed the Philippine ship.

Persons: Teresa Magbanua, Sabina, Thomas, ”, Jay Batongbacal, Sabina Shoal, Hu Bo, Ferdinand R, Marcos Jr, Mr, Hu, Marcos, Manlia, Jan, Thomas Shoal, “, Rommel Ong, Wu Yanan, Samuel Paparo, General, Lei Organizations: South China, Bank, University of the, Philippine Coast Guard, Coast Guard, Associated Press, Armed Forces, Facebook, Ateneo School of Government, Philippine Navy, Philippine, China Coast Guard, Reuters, THOMAS, SECOND, Strategic, International Studies, Pacific Command, Theater Command, United, Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences, People’s Liberation Army Locations: South, Philippine, China, Philippines, United States, Chinese, Spratly, Scarborough Shoal, Vietnam, PHILIPPINES SPRATLY, Palawan, SPRATLY, PHILIPPINES Palawan, Sabina, Manila, Asia, University of the Philippines, South China, Beijing, Shoal, Palawan ., China’s, U.S, United

☆ The Filipinos Living in the Shadow of China’s Military Might
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Camille Elemia | Jes Aznar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For travelers flying into the tiny island of Thitu, the reality of China’s territorial ambition becomes instantly clear. There they are: dozens of Chinese ships surrounding a speck of land that a few hundred Filipinos call home. Small wooden fishing boats line a white sand beach on the eastern shore. On a neighboring reef, it has constructed a military base whose lights shimmer at night like a city. So it is upgrading its crumbling military facilities that lie on the island’s southern end.

Locations: Thitu, China, Philippines

☆ Years Later, Philippines Reckons With Duterte’s Brutal Drug War
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Sui-Lee Wee | Camille Elemia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Rodrigo Duterte was running for president eight years ago, he vowed to order the police and the military to find drug users and traffickers to kill them, promising immunity for such killings. In the months after, police officers and vigilantes mercilessly gunned down tens of thousands of people in summary executions. Even now, two years after Mr. Duterte left office, there has been little legal reckoning with the wave of killings: Only eight police officers have been given prison sentences, in connection with just four cases, with one verdict that came this month. And though rights groups say that there have been fewer such killings since Mr. Duterte left, and far fewer involving agents of the government, a culture of violence and impunity has maintained a troubling hold in the Philippines.

Persons: Rodrigo Duterte, Duterte Locations: Philippines

The debate between Donald J. Trump and President Biden had analysts in Asia fretting. During Thursday night’s debate, President Biden told former President Donald J. Trump that the United States is the “envy of the world.”After watching their performance, many of America’s friends might beg to differ. In Europe and Asia, the back-and-forth between the blustering Mr. Trump and the faltering Mr. Biden set analysts fretting — and not just about who might win the election in November. Image Mr. Biden leaving the debate stage. Kasit Piromya, Thailand’s foreign minister from 2008 to 2011 and a former ambassador to the United States, lamented the state of American politics.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, ”, fretting —, ” Simon Canning, ” Sergey Radchenko, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, “, Putin, “ I’ve, Mr, Kenny Holston, François Heisbourg, Trump’s, “ I’m, Heisbourg, Radoslaw Sikorski, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Sikorski, Joe Biden’s, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Daniela Schwarzer, Bogdan Butkevych, “ Trump, Chan Heng Chee, Ms, Chan, Lee Byong, ’ ”, Koichi Nakano, Haiyun Jiang, Narendra Modi, Tara Kartha, —, Shen Dingli, don’t, Kasit, Damien Cave, Lee Wee, Choe Sang, Vivian Wang, Camille Elemia, Mujib Mashal, Ségolène Le Stradic, Marc Santora Organizations: Johns Hopkins School, International Studies, —, Mr, Russia, New York Times, Trump, Bertelsmann Foundation, Washington , D.C, Credit, Kremlin, Kyiv Independent, Biden unnerves, Institute for Far Eastern, Kyungnam University, Sophia University, The New York Times, Washington, National Security Council of, ”, Weibo Locations: Asia, Australian, United States, Europe, Australia, Washington, Russia, China, North Korea, Ukraine, Lebanon, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Gaza, Jerusalem, France, Washington ,, American, Ukrainian, North, Seoul, “, United, Tokyo, The New York Times India, National Security Council of India, New Delhi, Beijing, India, Communist, Shanghai, U.S, Southeast Asia

☆ Drag Goes Mainstream in the Philippines, a Bastion of Christianity
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-22 | by ( Camille Elemia | Jes Aznar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Before he put on the glittery neon yellow tasseled jumpsuit, donned the yellow wig, and lip synced and danced onstage under colorful spotlights, Paul Hidacan went through his preshow routine in a busy dressing room. “I grew up in my church,” said Mr. Hidacan, 21, who has attended service in cropped tops, skirts and boots, and started performing in drag last year. “I know there are some who raise their brows when they see me, but the pastors accept me.”In many places in the Philippines, drag is becoming more mainstream, and more popular. Drag queens are on fashion magazine covers, and are pitching name-brand products like MAC Cosmetics, Shell gasoline, Durex condoms and Samsung phones. Students of at least one public university recently held a drag competition.

Persons: Paul Hidacan, “, ”, Hidacan Organizations: MAC, Shell, Samsung Locations: Philippines

☆ ‘Inside! Inside!’: Sailors Recount Houthi Attack and U.S. Navy Rescue
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Camille Elemia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The crew members thought it was nothing unusual, but moments later, the ship captain said, they noticed a vessel rushing toward their ship. The boat appeared to be remote-controlled — the fishermen they thought they had glimpsed were dummies — and crew members shouted, “Inside! Inside!” as they raced for cover, according to a video one of them posted on Facebook. The boat collided with their ship and exploded, shattering glass windows on the bridge of their vessel and submerging the engine room in seawater and oil, the captain said. “We were all scared,” the captain, Christian Domrique, said on Monday in Manila, where he and the crew members, all of whom are from the Philippines, were brought after the U.S. Navy airlifted them from the stricken vessel.

Persons: —, “, Christian Domrique Organizations: Facebook, U.S . Navy Locations: Sea, India, Manila, Philippines, Red, Yemen, Israel, Gaza

☆ China Deploys Dozens of Ships to Block Philippine Protest Flotilla
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Chris Buckley | Camille Elemia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China has sent dozens of coast guard and maritime militia vessels toward a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, a large show of force aimed at blocking a civilian protest flotilla from the Philippines, as tensions between the countries have flared. The Filipino group organizing the flotilla of about 100 small fishing boats, led by five slightly bigger ones, said it wanted to assert the Philippines’ claims to Scarborough Shoal, an atoll controlled by Beijing that is closer to Manila. But even before the motley Philippine fleet set out on Wednesday morning, China deployed a formidable contingent of much bigger government-run ships to the area, an intimidating escalation of its frequent assertions of control over vast expanses of sea far from its mainland. “What we’re seeing this time, I would say, is definitely of another order,” said Ray Powell, the director of SeaLight, a group that monitors the South China Sea. “I think that the China Coast Guard is concerned that they’re going to try to sort of get too close and so they’re sending an overwhelming force.”

Persons: ”, Ray Powell Organizations: Philippine, China Coast Guard Locations: China, South China, Philippines, Scarborough, Beijing, Manila

☆ Standing Up to China, Philippine Leader Courts New Network of Partners
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Sui-Lee Wee | Camille Elemia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With China aggressively asserting its claims on the South China Sea, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines spent his first year on the job beefing up Manila’s alliance with its oldest ally, the United States. Mr. Marcos is adding a new intensity to his muscular foreign policy at a critical moment in his country’s territorial dispute with Beijing. In January, Mr. Marcos and the leaders of Vietnam, another country fighting off Chinese claims to the crucial waterway, pledged closer cooperation between their coast guards. This month, Mr. Marcos clinched a maritime cooperation deal with Australia. “It has to be recognized that the South China Sea handles 60 percent of the trade of the entire world.

Persons: Ferdinand R, Marcos Jr, Marcos, it’s, Mr Organizations: Maritime, Australia, South China, ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations Locations: China, Philippines, United States, Beijing, Vietnam, Europe, South, Berlin

Taylor Swift has descended on Southeast Asia, or one small part of it at least: All of her six sold-out shows are in Singapore, the region’s wealthiest nation. The shows — and the undisclosed price that Singapore paid to host them — have also generated diplomatic tension with two of its neighbors, Thailand and the Philippines. Last month, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of Thailand said publicly that Singapore had paid Ms. Swift up to $3 million per show on the condition that she play nowhere else in Southeast Asia. A lawmaker in the Philippines later said that was not “what good neighbors do.”

Persons: Taylor Swift, Swift’s, Srettha, Swift, ” Organizations: Singapore Locations: Southeast Asia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines

☆ How a Decaying Warship Beached on a Tiny Shoal Provoked China’s Ire
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Camille Elemia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For more than two decades, it has been an unlikely flashpoint in the South China Sea: a rusty, World War II-era ship beached on a tiny reef that has become a symbol of Philippine resistance against Beijing. The Philippine government ran the vessel aground in 1999 on the Second Thomas Shoal, a contested reef 120 miles off the coast of the western province of Palawan. The dilapidated warship, known as the Sierra Madre, will never sail again. But it has remained there ever since, a marker of the Philippines’ claim to the shoal and an effort to prevent China from seizing more of the disputed waters. On Friday, a reporter for The New York Times was among a group given rare access to a Philippine resupply mission, first boarding a Coast Guard ship — the BRP Cabra — and then an inflatable dinghy to get within 1,000 yards of the Sierra Madre.

Persons: Thomas Organizations: Beijing, Philippine, The New York Times, Coast Guard, BRP, — Locations: South China, Palawan, Sierra Madre, Philippines, China, Philippine

The Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa on Tuesday was acquitted by a Philippine court of tax fraud, the latest legal victory in her fight for the survival of her news site Rappler, which has come to represent the precariousness of the nation’s press freedoms. A regional trial court in Pasig City, near Manila, found that Ms. Ressa did not violate the country’s tax code, according to the ruling. It was the fifth and final tax-related charge against Ms. Ressa, who faced a fine and up to 10 years in prison, and her publication, according to a statement from Rappler. Ms. Ressa, the Philippines’ most prominent journalist, has been the target of harassment and intimidation since she founded the news site in 2012. She has faced a series of civil and criminal cases, including charges of tax evasion and violations of foreign ownership rules.

Persons: Maria Ressa, Ressa, Ms, ” Locations: Philippine, Pasig City, Manila, Philippines

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