Philippine forces trained last week to defend Balabac, a strategic island in Palawan that is set to host a new military base dedicated to South China Sea operations. Philippine Marines and Coast Guard special forces held joint maritime boarding operations in the vicinity of Balabac Island,

Analysts are cautiously optimistic about the proposed pact as past efforts to lower the temperature in the waterway have had limited success.

The Chinese coastguard patrolled around disputed sites controlled by Vietnam in the Sea last week, vessel tracking information shows. Three patrol ships left a Chinese base on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands on Thursday and circled around a series of land features - some of which Vietnam has built facilities on - before returning to the reef on Saturday,

China's coast guard has accused a Philippine ship of deliberately ramming one of its vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Typhoon Fengshen, the 24th typhoon of this year, has entered the South China Sea on Monday and will exert significant impacts on the sea areas of South China's Guangdong Province in the next few days,

Sunken finds in the South China Sea testify to rich trade networks used over hundreds of years. The sea routes brought porcelain, tea and other goods from Asia to Africa, the Middle East and Europe

China has installed a new floating barrier at Scarborough Shoal, according to satellite imagery, as tensions rise between Beijing and Manila over the disputed atoll in the Sea. The barrier was seen blocking the entrance to the lagoon at the shoal in the image obtained by Satellogic,