The Philippines has filed a new legal complaint with the United Nations, asserting its own rights and challenging China’s claims.
New maritime rules issued by China allowing its coast guard to detain foreigners who enter the disputed South China Sea have come into force, but neighbouring countries have questioned the rules’ international legitimacy.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, ignoring competing claims by Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines and a 2016 ruling by an arbitral tribunal in The Hague that said its position has no legal basis.
China has sent coast guard and other vessels to patrol waters it claims as its territory and has turned some reefs into artificial islands for military purposes. Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed in the disputed area in recent years, raising fears of an escalating conflict.
Starting Saturday, China’s coast guard can detain foreigners “suspected of violating border entry and exit controls,” according to new rules posted online.
Detention for up to 60 days is permitted in “complex cases,” they said. “Foreign vessels that illegally enter China’s territorial waters or adjacent waters may be detained.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month called the new rules a “deeply disturbing” increase in tensions, and on Saturday the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced it had submitted legal documents to the United Nations in New York asserting the country’s “maritime rights” over the extended continental shelf in part of the South China Sea, which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea, under UN maritime rules.
The Philippines has condemned a Chinese coast guard vessel for “barbaric and inhumane acts” after it repeatedly sprayed water at Philippine ships in disputed waters, including a collision that injured a Philippine soldier.
Philippine military commander Gen. Romeo Brawner told reporters on Saturday that authorities in Manila were “discussing several measures that can be taken to protect our fishermen.”
Bronner said Philippine fishermen had been told to ignore Beijing’s new rules “without fear and to continue their normal fishing activities in our exclusive economic zone.”
The Group of Seven countries also on Friday criticised China’s “dangerous” incursions into the vital waterway, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Trillions of dollars of ship-borne trade pass through the South China Sea every year, and its ocean floor is thought to hold huge untapped oil and gas reserves, although estimates vary widely.
The ocean is also important as a source of fish for a growing population.
China has defended the new coast guard rules: A foreign ministry spokesman said last month they were intended to “better maintain maritime order,” while China’s defence minister warned this month that there are “limits” to China’s restraint in the South China Sea.
China has been angered in the past by U.S. and other Western warships passing through the South China Sea.
The U.S. Navy and others conduct such voyages to assert freedom of navigation in international waters, but China sees them as an infringement of its sovereignty.
Chinese and U.S. militaries have engaged in multiple close battles in the South China Sea.
