THE U.S. State Department is standing by the Philippines in its latest run-in with China over disputed sea territory.
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| Whitsun Reef, also known as Julian Felipe Reef, is part of the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea. (NASA). And a Philippine Coast Guard photo shows Chinese vessels are anchored off Julian Felipe Reef near Palawan province. |
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The Duterte government protested the presence of over 220 Chinese fishing vessels, believed manned by militias, spotted by the Philippine Coast Guard near Julian Felipe Reef in the Spratly Islands. The two countries are at odds over their respective claims to the Spratlys.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila says the ships are fishing vessels taking shelter from rough seas. But, in a diplomatic protest, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) complained that “their swarming and threatening presence creates an atmosphere of instability,” and infringes the nation’s sovereignty, the Reuters news agency reported.
Also called Whitsun, the boomerang-shaped reef lies about 175 nautical miles west of the Palawan province and inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The ships’ presence is a “clear provocative action of militarizing the area” and China should recall them, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, according to Reuters.
In his tweet, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “The U.S. stands with our ally, the Philippines, regarding concerns about the gathering of (Chinese) maritime militia vessels near Whitsun Reef. We call on Beijing to stop using its maritime militia to intimidate and provoke others, which undermines peace and security.”
Chinese fishing vessels frequently assist the coast guard and navy in asserting China’s maritime claims, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. does not recognize China’s claims and conducts frequent freedom-of-navigation patrols in the disputed waters. China’s claim to most of the South China Sea was rejected by an international tribunal in 2016; however, Beijing has ignored the ruling and built military facilities on seven of the disputed Spratly sites, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Manila tweeted to the U.S. Embassy twice. The first read: “The United States is not a party to the South China Sea issue. Fanning flames and provoking confrontation in the region will only serve the selfish interests of individual country and undermine the regional peace and stability.”
The second said: “Both China and the Philippines are sovereign and independent countries. We have the will, wisdom and ability to properly handle relevant issues through bilateral channels.”
The Chinese presence on the reef looks like an effort to expand territorial claims, Patricio Abinales, a Philippines expert at the University of Hawaii, told Stars and Stripes in an email. “They know they can do it because they know the Philippine Navy cannot do anything about it, and the U.S. will not move,” he said.
In a report by Rappler, former Justice Antonio Carpio said the presence of hundreds of Chinese vessels near Julian Felipe Reef could be a prelude to China’s occupying of another maritime feature in the West Philippine Sea.
Carpio said he was particularly worried that Beijing – by parking hundreds of ships believed to be manned by its maritime militia at the Julian Felipe Reef – was using the same strategy in occupying Mischief Reef in 1995.
Mischief Reef is a barely submerged coral reef and spit extending over 15 square nautical miles (nmi 2), some 135 nmi west of Palawan.
“This is not the first time they have done this. At the same time last year, in 2020, they also parked a hundred of their ships in Julian Felipe Reef. So this is a prelude to – the way I look at it – this is a prelude to occupying Julian Felipe Reef just like they did to Mischief Reef in 1995,” Carpio said in an interview on ANC's Headstart.
Carpio, one of the legal luminaries that secured the Philippines' victory over China at an international arbitral tribunal in The Hague, recalled China’s moves to illegally seize Mischief Reef in 1995.
“They started saying they were just building a fishermen's shelter on Mischief Reef; now Mischief Reef is their air and naval base. They call it their Pearl Harbor in the South China Sea – a huge air and naval base,” Carpio said. “I’m particularly worried that they will now start claiming, building on Julian Felipe Reef, just like what they did to Mischief Reef in 1995.”
Apart from Mischief Reef, Carpio pointed out that China had also effectively taken control of Sandy Cay, a sandbar just two nautical miles from Pag-asa Island and within the territorial sea of the island. “Now China is doing the same thing to Julian Felipe Reef and we should be very wary of what’s happening in Julian Felipe Reef,” he said.
DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin reacted to Carpio's warning on Twitter, saying that the Duterte government would not yield “even a nautical iota as PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) declared in the UN (United Nations).”
Locsin made the remark in a tweet where he claimed the Philippines and China confronted one another in Mischief Reef, though this took place in Scarborough Shoal in 2012, not in Mischief Reef in 1995.
Carpio stressed that while countries, including China, can express the right to navigation, it cannot park hundreds of its vessels in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. “They were saying they took shelter because of a storm, but no storm was anywhere near Julian Felipe Reef,” Carpio said, referring to China’s denial that ships in the area were not manned by militia and instead took shelter from rough sea conditions.(By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes. With additional reporting from Mindanao Examiner and Rappler.)
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