China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have held their largest-ever joint maritime rescue exercise, signalling a lull in South China Sea tensions. The drill on Tuesday simulated a collision between a Chinese passenger ship and a Cambodian cargo vessel off south China’s Guangdong province. It involved about 1,000 rescuers aboard 20…

As much as India has sought to turn the page after the tense 72-day standoff in Doklam, Beijing appears to be in no hurry to do so. A month on, signals from Beijing suggest the August 28 disengagement may have, at best, been a tactical pause, likely prompted by China wanting to host a successful BRICS…

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen will visit three Pacific nations in the next month, the foreign ministry said Friday, as fears grow of China influencing its dwindling list of allies. It comes after Panama cut official ties with Taiwan in June, choosing instead to form diplomatic relations with China — leaving the island with only 20 nations…

On Tuesday, an anti-aircraft defense battalion set off for the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea that separates China from the peninsula. There, it tested unidentified weapons to shoot down low-altitude targets. The website also noted that “The troops rapid response capabilities and actual combat levels have effectively been tested.”

The drills come days following North Korea’s testing of an advanced hydrogen bomb, the sixth and largest nuclear weapons test to date. The move comes amid rising international concern that the often volatile leaders of the country are close to mounting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In the meantime, the United States has discussed deployment of anti-aircraft carriers and strategic bombers with its ally South Korea. However, North Korean ally China has expressed concern about U.S.-South Korean drills and contempt toward Washington’s deployment of an anti-missile defense system in the South.

However, China’s relations with the North have been also been tested in recent months following North Korea’s missile launches and the United States’ calls for mounting pressure on the nuclear armed state.

The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying both countries were now on the right track. The station also reported that Xi told his counterpart than strong and healthy ties between the two countries were needed. Modi congratulated Xi on his country’s execution of the summit, which brought together leaders from emerging economies including South Africa and Brazil to the discussion room with Beijing in the port city of Xiamen.

Tensions between China and India flared after India’s military blocked China’s attempt at building a road into the Doklam plateau. After several reported clashes between the two sides, they finally came to an agreement.

At a media briefing, India’s Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said “Both sides agreed that there should be better communication and cooperation so that such occurrences don’t happen again.”

The popular microblogging site Sina WeiBo recently censored searchers for the term “Hydrogen Bomb.” According to censorship-monitoring website FreeWeibo, the top 3 terms banned by Weibo in the last 24 hours are “North Korea,” “Hydrogen Bomb” and “Brics.” The watchdog site also reports that posts from independent news sites that could be deemed alarming have been removed.

After users look up these banned terms, they are presented with the following message: “According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results cannot be displayed.”

The Communist nation isn’t even allowing humor. Several jokes regarding Brics and the North Korean test have been censored or removed.  

One user by the handle Zhang Hongjie sarcastically posted  “North Korea set off a 6.3 scale firecracker to applaud the start of Brics”, before it was removed. Another known online as  IAmDaGang had his comment removed for posting  “Kim the Fat had set off a blast to celebrate.”

But for some users, the situation is no laughing matter. Many citizens are speculating that tense relations between North Korea and its biggest trading and military partner China could lead to a nuclear disaster.

User Wang Zhanyang noted that tremors were felt in Changchun, which is located 269 miles from the North Korean border. “There were people running out of their houses; in such a hazardous nuclear environment, how can we feel secure about the development of the economy?” he asked.

His post was also removed.

On Tuesday, Indian and Chinese patrols exchanged blows on Ladakh region of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, local reports indicate. Even though both countries have long held territorial disputes along their 2200-mile border, the latest episode began when Chinese soldiers set off to build a road that would bring it closer to the Doklam area. This region is claimed by China and Indian ally Bhutan. India argues the road would have given Chinese troops an unfair amount of access to its strategically important Siliguri Corridor.

Both sides have expressed bringing an end to the matter through dialogue, but no solution has been carried out in the past two months. So far, Chinese state-run media has assured its people that the Communist nation is ready to defend its interests with force. But the Indian army is not taking any chances either.

China’s The Global Times reported that the government is moving its blood collection centers closer to the region. Shashank Joshi, an analyst with the Royal United Services Institute in London, tells the Washington Post that India is bumping the operational alert status of several units by two months. Two of its mountain divisions are being moved toward the region and troops are beginning to acclimatize higher altitudes.

But China’s attempted move into Doklam is only part of its ongoing expansion in Asia. Beijing continues to anger its neighbors by expanding its footprint and military presence in the South China Sea where it comes into territorial disputes with multiple neighbors. Its massive Belt and Road project is also pushing Chinese influence along the continent much to the dismay of neighboring countries. Some analysts say India may pose the only real roadblock.

“It would be very complacent to rule out escalation,” said Joshi. “It’s the most serious crisis in India-China relations for 30 years.”

“The most significant challenge to India comes from the rise of China, and there is no doubt in my mind that China will seek to narrow India’s strategic space by penetrating India’s own neighborhood,” said former Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran said recently at an event in New Delhi. “This is what we see happening.”

“This century should be a century of dialogue,” the spiritual leader said in the Indian capital. “One-side victory, one-side defeat is old thinking. Destruction of your neighbor is destruction of yourself. The only way is through talks.”

Chinese and Indian militaries are currently facing each other at a standstill on the disputed Doklam Plateau. It all started in June when India’s army moved into the region to expel a Chinese construction crew building a road that would give Beijing more influence in the region than India was willing to allow. Even though those close to the situation have reported to journalists that closed-door diplomatic efforts between the two countries have stalled, analysts are describing this instance as the most tense since the bloody 1960s border clash between both sides. Since then, the two have often disputed over the 3,500-km-long mountain border.

“Two big nations don’t have the ability to eliminate the other or defeat the other,” argued the Dalai Lama who has won support from India’s government. “So you have to live side by side.”

Meanwhile, China still disregards the spiritual leader as a dangerous separatist.

Still, the Dalai Lama believes another door for dialogue may open following the next Communist Party Congress.

“Some of my friends say, after the 19th party meeting, some old politburo members may change because of age,” says the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. “So my friends say, after the 19th party meeting, there could be some possibility, some change.”

Chinese and Indian armies are currently facing each other at a standstill on the disputed Doklam Plateau. It all started in June when India’s army moved into the region to expel a Chinese construction crew building a road that would give Beijing more influence in the region than India was willing to allow.

Moving forward, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang will kick off a 4-day visit to Kathmandu August 28. Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will visit India between August 23 and 27. Afterward, Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara will visit Beijing.

And while Nepal has taken an official stance to not interfere in the China-India affair, it would be hard to shake off the elephant in the room during these high profile meetings.

China’s push into the Doklam region comes amid its ambitious projects to expand trade with Asia and beyond via the massive Belt and Road initiative — a project India has refused to take part in.

Meanwhile, Nepal is set to take part in that initiative via the construction of China-funded infrastructure in Nepal — likely a topic of discussion during Wang’s visit.

Later this month, China is set to extend its optical fiber network into Nepal ending India’s dominance of Internet services there.

As Kathmandu moves forward with these projects, it will be crossing a tightrope in trying to not give some sway in the China-India border matter.

“Unlike Singapore, which has played a key role of balancing the rivalry between China and the U.S., South Asian countries like Nepal have so far been powerless in doing anything to mediate the China-India conflict,” said Pang Zhongying, dean of Ocean University in Qingdao, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

“Owing to China’s traditional economic ties with North Korea, it will mainly be China paying the price for implementing the resolution,” said China’s Foreign Minister Yang Wi. “But in order to protect the international non-proliferation system and regional peace and stability, China will as before fully and strictly properly implement the entire contents of the relevant resolution.”

North Korea was slapped by these new sanctions following a unanimous decision by the United Nations after North Korea had tested intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in defiance of existing resolutions.

These new sanctions ban the exporting of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. Moreover, it prevents nations from opening their borders to more North Korean laborers and prohibits any new ventures.

Still, it remains unclear as to how these moves will affect the North’s nuclear weapons program. Following Pyongyang’s ICBM tests, the Japanese government released a white paper suggesting North Korea may be inching closer to mounting nuclear warheads on these missiles, which have the potential to strike the United States.

“Since last year, when it forcibly implemented two nuclear tests and more than 20 ballistic missile launches, the security threats have entered a new stage,” the Japanese Defence Ministry said in the document. “It is conceivable that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has already considerably advanced and it is possible that North Korea has already achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons and has acquired nuclear warheads.”

Following various American media reports that North Korea had succesully built a “minuturized nuclear weapon” capable of fitting on some of its missiles, President Donald Trump warned the North was getting closer and closer to a line it would not be able to turn back from.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump told reporters. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening … and as I said they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”