Amid rising tensions between the two countries, China has dispatched dozens of coast guard and maritime militia vessels to a disputed atoll in the South China Sea and launched a large-scale armed force aimed at stopping a civilian protest platoon from the Philippines. It’s a show off.
A Philippine group organizing a flotilla of about 100 small fishing vessels, led by five slightly larger vessels, said it wanted to assert the Philippines’ claim to the Chinese-controlled Scarborough Shoal near Manila.
But even before the motley Philippine fleet set sail on Wednesday morning, China had sent a formidable force of much larger government ships to the area, repeatedly asserting control of vast swaths of the ocean far from the mainland. This resulted in a coercive escalation.
“What we’re seeing here is definitely on another level,” said Ray Powell, director of Sealight, a group that monitors the South China Sea. “I think the Chinese Coast Guard is concerned that they are trying to get too close in a sense, so they are sending an overwhelming amount of troops.”
Standoffs and close collisions between the Philippine Coast Guard and civilian vessels and large Chinese coast guard vessels and militia vessels, which have used powerful water cannons to chase away Philippine vessels, have become more frequent over the past two years. ing. Powell said encounters near shallow waters could be more dangerous this time around due to the size of the Chinese presence and the large number of Philippine civilian vessels.
“If China decides it wants to send a message that ‘we’ve had enough,’ the last thing we want to see is one small Philippine fishing boat being hit with a water cannon. It’s not going to end well.” ” he said.
Rafaela David, one of the leaders of Atin Ito, a Philippine group coordinating protests at sea, said the group would not be prevented from trying to reach the atoll, which the Philippines calls Panatag Reef. Ta. It is estimated that it will take about 20 hours for the fishing boat to arrive.
“Civilian access should be normalized and regularized,” David said at a news conference Tuesday in Botolan, a town on the Philippine main island of Luzon. She said the number of protest boats would show that Filipinos are “not intimidated by a huge country like China.”
It seems unlikely that the group will be able to break China’s control over Scarborough Shoal, about 220 kilometers west of Luzon.
By Tuesday, China had five Coast Guard ships and six Maritime Militia ships near the shoal, and another about 90 miles away, said Powell, a member of the National Gordian Knot Center. It is said that around 25 maritime militia ships were stationed there. Stanford University Security Innovation. He added that this estimate does not include Chinese vessels that are not equipped with automatic identification signaling devices that would allow them to be tracked, or whose devices are turned off to “go dark.”
Philippine Navy and Coast Guard officials said they were sending ships to escort the Philippine civilian convoy.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government warned Filipino protesters to stay away from the shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island.
“If the Philippine side abuses China’s goodwill and violates China’s territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction, China will protect its rights and take countermeasures in accordance with law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference. Probably.” In Beijing. “The responsibility and consequences rest entirely with the Philippines.”
Relations between Manila and Beijing have deteriorated over the past two years over maritime disputes.
Since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was elected president of the Philippines in 2022, he has revived ties with the United States and pushed back against China’s claims to shoals and outcrops near the Philippines. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is increasing the activities of its coast guard and maritime militia to protect its own territorial rights.
China’s Coast Guard announced on Monday that it had begun a sea rescue exercise near Scarborough Shoal “to ensure the safety of people onboard ships coming and going.”
Manila has also accused China of taking steps to turn Sabina Reef, another disputed atoll located about 133 miles northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan, into an artificial island, and has added coast guard and naval vessels to the area. was dispatched. On Monday, the Chinese government rejected the accusations.
Scarborough Shoal has been under Chinese control since China seized it from Manila in 2012 after a weeks-long standoff. Filipino fishermen have worked in these resource-rich shallows for years, but access has since become restricted and sporadic.
In 2016, an international tribunal established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea rejected China’s extensive claims in the South China Sea, ruling that the shallow waters are traditional fishing grounds for the Philippines, China and Vietnam. China has ignored the ruling and continues to tighten its control over much of the sea, including Scarborough Shoal.
The group that organizes the Philippine fleet, Atin Ito, is a coalition of groups representing religious activists, civil society groups, and fishermen. The group, whose name means “This is Ours,” seeks to inspire the nation by peacefully asserting Philippine claims in what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
Atin Ito staged a similar protest last year, sending a boat to Second Thomas Shoal (a disputed atoll also known as Ayungin Shoal) where Philippine Navy personnel detained him on his stranded vessel. However, these ships were forced to turn back after being relentlessly tailed by Chinese vessels who used water cannons against Filipino vessels attempting to deliver supplies to the stranded ships.
This time, Atin Ito’s mission could be bigger and bolder. The group said it plans to offload food and fuel for Philippine fishing boats in the area. Along the way, the flotilla began dropping buoys with the message “WPS, Atin Itoh,” meaning the West Philippine Sea is ours.
