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Wreckage of the Imperial Japanese Navy ship SS "Montevideo Maru", sunk during World War II, is found after 81 years in the South China Sea, off the coast of Luzon Island. The ship, which was carrying over 1,000 prisoners of war, including 850 Australian POWs, represented the largest loss of life for the Australian armed forces during the Second World War.
2023-04-21

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou becomes the first Taiwanese leader to visit mainland China since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, meeting with China's Taiwan Affairs Office deputy chair Chen Yuanfeng in Shanghai. Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party criticized this visit as "endorsing" China's position on Taiwan.
2023-03-27

Australian helicopters, from the Royal Australian Navy flagship HMAS "Canberra", are forced to make an emergency landing after being targeted by lasers from fishing boats in the South China Sea. The "Canberra" was being trailed by a Chinese warship.
2019-05-28

The People's Republic of China lodges a complaint with the United States after President-elect of the United States Donald Trump speaks with President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen. The PRC and the United States view Taiwan as a breakaway province.
2016-12-3

A report by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry states that China has placed surface-to-air missiles on the disputed Woody Island. Taiwanese President-elect Tsai Ing-wen called on all parties to "exercise self-control based on the principle of peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea," while Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said that such a move would be "a militarization of the South China Sea in ways" that Mainland China's leader Xi Jinping had pledged not to make.
2016-02-17

The President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou visits Taiping Island, Taiwan's largest island in the South China Sea, despite the United States warning it could provoke diplomatic tensions with the People's Republic of China and other nations in the area.
2016-01-28

China hosts the ministers of defense from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the meeting a Chinese defense official suggests joint maritime drills between the host and ASEAN. At the same time, it is widely expected that U.S. Navy vessels may soon sail within 12 nautical miles of islands China is constructing upon reefs and atolls in the South China Sea.
2015-10-16

The Special Investigation Division of Taiwan initiates a review stemming from allegations that President Ma Ying-jeou has received illegal political donations from Ting Hsin International Group, a disgraced conglomerate at the center of the recent food scandal.
2014-12-26

Pan-Green protesters pelt eggs at a poster of Ma Ying-jeou as Ma is sworn in for a second term as the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), after winning the presidential election in January.
2012-05-20

Security is tightened in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, ahead of anti-China protests amid an ongoing Sino-Philippine territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
2012-05-11