For many years, United States military airplanes and ships have conducted close-in surveillance operations on China. Recently, with a more ostentatious move, a U.S. Navy vessel sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Zhongjian Island in China’s Xisha Archipelago in violation of Chinese sovereignty. The U.S. claimed that they will continue the practice in the future.

As large parts of Asia celebrate the arrival of the Lunar New Year on February 8th, it’s in with the Year of the Monkey. But before the Year of the Sheep fully recedes into memory, we take our annual look back at the people and events that made headlines across Asia—for good and for bad.

With Japan’s pride and nationalist impulse to play a bigger international role now rising, its domestic debate on national-security and constitutional reform is set to intensify. Although rising powers tend to be revisionist powers, a politically resurgent Japan, strikingly, is seeking to uphold the present Asian political and maritime order.

From the Iran nuclear deal to the climate agreement in Paris, a new level of cooperation between Beijing and Washington signals that the pragmatic relationship dating from the Nixon administration is not threatened by changes in international conditions. A consensus is taking shape among celebrities, ordinary citizens, leaders and strategists in both countries that China and the US should not change their course of engagement and cooperation.

A free-trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific would capitalize on the capabilities and the diversity of APEC countries. As broached by China in 1996, an open economy in the Asia-Pacific is a step toward common development, prosperity and progress for the whole region.

The Philippine’s theme of this year's APEC Summit is “Building Inclusive Economies, Building A Better World.” Like the case for China's 2014 hosting, this 2015 agenda reflects clear Philippine domestic imperatives. As a major labor exporter, the Philippines will work well with the topic of investments in human capital development.

The free-trade deal seems more firmly rooted in politics than economics, lacking both fairness and transparency, and that doesn’t bode well for a harmonious world order.

For those who oppose the TPP, much as been made of the secret nature in which the treaty was negotiated. Walker Rowe summarizes some major sectors that will be affect by the treaty, and thus trying to influence a rather fractured and unpopular trade agreement.

On October 27, the U.S. Navy sent the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen on a “freedom of navigation” patrol within 12-miles of a man-made islands.in the Spratly chain. Carpenter argues that there are less confrontational ways to pursue that objective without the kind of “in your face” challenge.

Washington should talk to Beijing to establish their mutual respect for international law, instead of sending a warship so close to China’s islands, no matter if such rocks are natural or artificial.