English By Ralph Jennings Share on Facebook Print this page TAIPEI - Chinese supply of a COVID-19 vaccine to Indonesia and the Philippines is likely to strengthen Beijing’s image in those countries, despite current resentment of its expansion in the South China Sea, if the vaccines work, analysts say.
Both countries have moved to order vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech, a Beijing-based pharmaceutical company, according to Asian media reports and the company’s website. China’s official Xinhua News Agency in October had called it “crucial” to distribute vaccines “around the world, not just the wealthy nations.”
People in both countries resent Chinese expansion in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea where sovereignty claims overlap. China, with Asia’s strongest military, has built up islands that the Philippines claims and passed ships through waters that Jakarta says fall within an Indonesian exclus
share
TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Countries in Southeast Asia, a growing region of more than 650 million people, stand to make lasting deals with the United States and keep China at bay if President-elect Joe Biden works with their prized cross-border dialogue process, analysts in the region believe.
Biden’s expected willingness to strengthen a U.S. role in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc will increase confidence among the Asian leaders that Washington will act predictably as a bulwark against China neither bowing to it nor over-provoking it as well as a potential source of trade deals, analysts say.
English By Ralph Jennings Share on Facebook Print this page
TAIPEI, TAIWAN - A magazine with ties to the Chinese armed forces has acknowledged China would have difficulty in defending its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. Analysts see the article as a signal to the incoming U.S. administration that it should not force Beijing to further fortify the islets.
Bases on a network of reefs and atolls, where Beijing has used landfills to create space for airstrips and other military infrastructure, are hard to defend because of their distance from mainland China, the monthly magazine Naval and Merchant Ships said in its most recent edition.