Tensions Between China and the Philippines Escalate in the South China Sea

Vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard, whose recent exercises in the South China Sea have been a point of contention between the Philippines and China (Flickr).

The Philippines has accused China of interfering with its coast guard exercises near the Scarborough Shoal, a South China Sea territory disputed between both countries. The accusation follows an April 28 announcement from the Philippine Defense Ministry that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has no intentions of stopping its military drills, challenging China’s claim over the maritime territory.

The move heightens recently revived tensions between the Philippines and China, whose territorial claims in the South China Sea overlap. The PCG and the fisheries bureau initiated a series of maritime exercises on April 24 inside the country's 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), following an announcement of a boosting of its presence to counter the presence of Chinese boats. Earlier on March 7, the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. lodged a protest with the Chinese government over 220 Chinese vessels mooring at Whitsun Reef near the western Philippine province of Palawan. 

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana asserted that day in a statement to the Philippine News Agency that it was an “incursion” that was “violating ‘Philippine] maritime rights and encroaching into [their] sovereign territory.” His counterpart, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, defended the presence as Chinese ships engaging in “normal fishing in adjacent waters.”

Although Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged the free aid China has sent the Philippines over the course of the pandemic, he held a firm stance on the maritime issue. “There are things that are not really subject to a compromise… I hope they will understand, but I have the interest of my country also to protect,” he said. 

Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. affirmed the sentiment, filing more than a dozen diplomatic protests against China. He maintained that regardless of what the Chinese government said, the Philippines will “continue to assert from our waters by right of international law what we won in The Hague.”

Locsin refers to a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague that rejected China’s argument that it enjoys historic rights over most of the South China Sea. The tribunal also said that China had violated international law by causing “irreparable harm” to the marine environment, endangering Philippine ships, and interfering with Philippine fishing and oil exploration. In spite of the ruling, in which China chose to not participate, Chinese President Xi Jinping reasserted his country’s claims to the sea. The Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated this point, decrying the tribunal’s decision as “invalid and [without any] binding force.”

Speaking about the most recent developments in the region, Hermogenes Esperon, a national security adviser to Duterte, recently accused the Chinese Coast Guard of “shadowing, blocking, dangerous maneuvers and radio challenges” against PCG vessels BRP Gabriela Silang and BRP Sindangan. He claims that the ships were conducting “legitimate law enforcement patrols and maritime exercises while in the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc on 24-25 April 2021,” referring to the shoal by its Philippine name.

At the same time, China is imposing its annual three-and-a-half-month summer fishing ban over the waters of the South China Sea north of the 12th parallel. The ban, which China implemented as a means of preserving local fish populations, came into effect on May 1. Esperon, speaking on behalf of the Philippine government, overtly opposed the ban and encouraged Philippine fishermen to defy it as well.