PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines — U.S. Marines are strengthening ties with their Philippine counterparts on an island that borders the South China Sea as the U.S. ally faces an ever-assertive Beijing. The strategic importance of Palawan, a narrow, 280-mile-long island where Marines have been training this month with the... read full story
"It controls the straights into the Sulu Sea and into the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea,"