CHINA is stepping up pressure on the Philippines to concede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Manila’s Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said yesterday in Canberra after meeting his Australian counterpart Richard Miles.
The fifth such meeting since August 2023 reflects growing security ties between the countries, which have both voiced concern about Chinese activity in areas of the busy waterway claimed by the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
“What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area,” Teodoro said after meeting Australian counterpart Richard Marles, adding that the Philippines is a “victim of Chinese aggression.”
In Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest over China’s recent moves to establish “baselines and base points” around Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal.
DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said the diplomatic protest was “sent Tuesday to Beijing.”
The latest move brings to 56 the total number of protests filed by Manila against Beijing’s aggressive moves in its exclusive economic zones and territorial waters since January this year. Overall, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed the post in 2022, the DFA has filed a total of 189 protests.
Earlier yesterday, the National Maritime Council rejected China’s recent move to draw baselines around Bajo de Masinloc, saying this act infringes upon Manila’s sovereignty over the area.
Beijing’s release of the baselines came just two days after Marcos signed into law the Maritime Zones Act and the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, which Malacañang said will solidify the Philippines’ maritime boundaries in accordance with international law.
China criticized the passage of the said legislation as an infringement on its claim over the South China Sea.
The Philippines and Australia signed a strategic partnership in September 2023 before holding their first joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea months later. This year, the Philippines also joined war games in Australia for the first time.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing has taken measures to assert its rights after the Philippines “infringed first.”
“If the Philippines no longer infringes and provokes, there will be no more escalation of the maritime situation,” Lin Jian told a press briefing.
China and the Philippines have sparred repeatedly this year over disputed areas of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, one of Asia’s most contested places.
On Sunday, China said it had defined a baseline of “territorial waters” around the shoal in response to Philippine approval of two laws defining its sea lanes and maritime zones to bolster its territorial claims around the South China Sea.
Manila’s national maritime council said on Tuesday it objected to China’s establishment of baselines and accused Beijing of violating its sovereignty.
“The establishment of the baselines by China around the shoal is a continuation of its 2012 illegal seizure of the shoal, which the Philippines continues to strongly oppose,” it said in a statement.
PATROLS
China has ramped up its maritime patrols in the South China Sea, state-backed Global Times said late on Monday, deploying vessels capable of longer patrols and stricter enforcement after the Philippines passed new laws to protect its rights in the vast waterway. Thousand ton-class ships with “strong cruising and resupply capabilities” will be used, while hundred ton-class patrol boats with “high maneuverability and flexible enforcement tactics” will enable pursuit and interception of fast-moving targets and boarding inspections, the Global Times said.
Since seizing the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippines, China has maintained a constant deployment there of coast guard and fishing trawlers, some accused by Manila of being maritime militia.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.
Teodoro said China’s claims and behavior were contrary to international law and defense deals with partners such as Australia were an important way to deter Chinese incursions.
“Although they (China) claim to act under the aegis of international law, everybody knows that what they’re doing is contrary to the tenets of international law,” he said.
“The biggest evidence of this is that nobody has actually supported their actions or activities.”
In addition to closer ties with countries such as Australia and the United States, the Philippines also plans to spend at least $33 billion on new weapons, such as advanced fighter jets and mid-range missiles.
Marles said Australia wanted to work more closely with the Philippine defense industry and would send an engineering assessment team there early next year.
CHINESE SHIPS
The Philippine Navy said 29 Chinese Coast Guard and Navy ships were monitored at several features in the contested West Philippine Sea (WPS) in the South China Sea last month,
“These are all illegal, their presence is illegal,” said Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad referring to the ships — 15 from the Chinese Coast Guard and 14 People’s Liberation Army-Navy.
The vessels were sighted by the Armed Forces in the WPS features, including at Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, from October 1 to 31, he said.
Trinidad said the 29 Chinese ships were part of 13,874 foreign and domestic vessels monitored all over the Philippine archipelago in October.
“This maritime traffic was composed of 11,097 foreign and 2,777 domestic vessels, with 15 Chinese Coast Guard Vessels and 14 People’s Liberation Army Navy Vessels,” he said.
“These are innocent passage or freedom of navigation,” he added.
Trinidad said the foreign vessels, except the Chinese, replied to “challenges” made by the Philippine military.
China gained control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 following a standoff with Philippine government vessels and has since prevented Filipinos from fishing inside the shoal’s lagoon.
“These 29 vessels were monitored transiting or passing through the vicinity of our features to include Bajo de Masinloc, Sabina Shoal, Julian Felipe Reef, and Iroquois Reef and were not stationary,” said Trinidad.
China has become aggressive in its claims over the West Philippine Sea in the past years, harassing Philippine government vessels and aircraft and even Filipino fishing boats.
Trinidad said the Philippine military “will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our waters remain safe and secure for all.” – Reuters, Ashzel Hachero and Victor Reyes
