China is putting ever greater pressure on the Philippines to cede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Manila's Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday after meeting his Australian counterpart in Canberra.

China has published baselines for a contested shoal in the South China Sea it had seized from the Philippines, a move that’s likely to increase tensions over overlapping territorial claims. The Foreign Ministry on Sunday posted online geographic ...

The move was a direct response to the Philippines’ enactment of two new laws aimed at strengthening the country’s own maritime claims.

Indonesia said on Monday it does not recognise China's claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights.

The move from Beijing comes just a day after the Philippines signed two laws defining the country’s maritime zones

Over the weekend, the two nations signed a joint development agreement that refers to “overlapping claims” in the disputed waterway.

See how China has spent tens of billions of dollars turning farm fields and seaports into military complexes on Hainan and remote outposts in the South China Sea.

China is putting ever-greater pressure on the Philippines to cede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday after a meeting with his Australian counterpart in Canberra.