“The Philippines Challenge Another Chinese Incursion in its Exclusive Economic Zone”
“This time China is attempting to build an artificial island”
“Chinese activities in the South China Sea date back to over 2,000 years ago. China was the first country to discover, name, explore, and exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them.” This is a statement from Tom Wu the director of the media section of the Chinese embassy in Manila when responding to questions over Chinese activities in the Escoda Shoal in another violation of Philippine sovereignty. Wu was attempting to justify, poorly, that all of China’s activities in the South China Sea are legal and all others are illegal and a violation of China’s sovereignty. The Escoda Shoal is another incident in the escalating accusations of the two western Pacific nations.
Despite the statement made by Mr. Wu with its list to justify China’s expansive claims of the South China Sea, international courts have twice rejected the Chinese claims as invalid. China counters that the international courts have no jurisdiction to make such a judgment and thus the legal findings are not valid. The disregard for the rules-based order of the sea has allowed the Philippines to rally supporters to its cause as it directly confronts China over its illegal claims.
Most of the focus of the Filipino – Sino dispute has been around the grounded Philippine navy ship the Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal. The Sierra Madre was intentionally grounded to provide the Philippines a permanent presence in the shoal. The other flash point is the Scarborough Shoal which does not have a manned presence like the Second Thomas Shoal, but it is a commonly used fishery. Both shoals reside in the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, in the South China Sea and are internationally recognized areas for the Philippines to use for economic purposes.
Like all things in the South China Sea, China claims both these shoals as its sovereign territory. The Chinese Coast Guard and Maritime Militia commonly patrol both these and attempt to interdict any Philippine efforts to operate in these shoals. The Chinese ships will use dangerous maneuvers, ramming, use of military grade lasers to blind Philippine personnel and use water cannons against Philippine vessels which for the first time this month included using water cannons against Philippine government ships, a coast guard and fishery agency ship, at the Scarborough Shoal. After that incident the Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro announced that the Philippines would change their tactics in regard to encounters with Chinese ships but he did not specify what those changes would be.
This weekend the Philippines announced that the Chinese were suspected of conducting illegal operations in the Escoda Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippine Coast Guard announced that crushed coral was being dumped in the shoal in what appears to be a Chinese reclamation activity like what they have conducted on other shoals and reefs in the South China Sea to create artificial islands that could be used by the Chinese military. The Philippine Coast Guard had monitored thirty-four militia vessels, four Chinese Coast Guard and three PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) ships along with a PLAN helicopter and a research vessel with divers operating in the area.
The Philippines responded by sending their largest coast guard ship, the BRP Teresa MagBanua to the region along with two smaller coast guard ships. The Teresa MagBanua has been continuously on station for almost a month and the smaller coast guard vessels rotate in an out. The Philippines coast guard ships are apparently planning to permanently patrol in the area to keep the Chinese vessels from continuing their suspected artificial island building.
The Philippines cannot allow the Chinese to build an artificial island in Escoda Shoal since it is only 75 miles from the main Palawan Island of the which is Philippine territory. The building of an island inside the Philippine EEZ and so close to the Philippines’ islands would allow the Chinese to directly threaten the islands. The Philippines are expected to send out researchers to determine the origin of the crushed coral in what appears to be the start of a new round of legal actions in the international maritime courts against China.
The threat of taking the China back to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will not make a difference to the Chinese. They will continue to ignore any ruling by the court and continue to claim the South China Sea as sovereign territory. However, what the Philippines are doing by standing for its rights against an aggressive and lawless China is that it is gathering more evidence and providing a very public display of what China is doing in the South China Sea and that it is actual aggressor. The power of what the Philippines are doing is that it is providing proof to countries outside of the major powers, such as India, that China is acting outside of its legal boundaries. If a country embraces the rules-based order, where all countries operate within the same set of rules they will be compelled to question China’s motives.
This factor cannot be understated as China attempts to be a major player on the world stage. Such as China attempts to influence other nations to accept Belt and Road Initiative projects will be harder if China’s misdeeds are so publicly on display and routinely broadcasted. The more that China is demonstrated to be lawless, the more its word will be distrusted. It may not make a difference in the short term, but as more countries start distrusting China, it will find itself at the point that more and more countries if not side against it, will not side with it. Eventually the scales will be tipped against China in its claims in the western Pacific and then it will have to decide how it can operate as an effective world power with so few allies in its own backyard.
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