The standoff between China and the Philippines over the sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea is turning into a diplomatic confrontation. In the latest development, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs issued an eight-point statement on the evening of April 5, strongly condemning the Chinese Embassy in Manila for its lack of diplomatic etiquette and hospitality, and for spreading false information. China has recently gathered hundreds of militia fishing boats for more than a month to “shelter” in the Philippines’ exclusive economic waters at NiuYuYao Reef, prompting repeated protests from the Philippines and raising tensions in the South China Sea. What does China want?
The Chinese embassy in Manila has upset its host, the Philippines, again, this time also because of the South China Sea.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued an eight-point statement of condemnation on the evening of the 5th, which is the most serious wording of the Philippine foreign affairs department in the dispute between China and the Philippines in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea over Ngau Yoke Reef for more than a month.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs refuted the Chinese Embassy’s claim that the Spratly “Bull Yoke Reef” (known as Julian Felipe Reef in the Philippines) is China’s inherent territory and fishing grounds, and accused the Chinese side of blatantly lying and spreading false information that the weather in the South China Sea is “not bad at all. In the last point, he strongly condemned the Chinese Embassy’s criticism of Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for being “rude” and reminded the Chinese side that they should know “the way of hospitality” when they are guests in Manila. The Embassy of the Philippines has been criticized by Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for being “rude” and reminding China that it should know how to be a “guest” in Manila.
Lorenzana issued a statement from the Philippine Department of Defense twice this weekend, accusing the Chinese Foreign Ministry of blinding itself to the fact that “China’s maritime militias continue to build up and they simply intend to further occupy the ‘West Philippine Sea’ (or the South China Sea, as China calls it),” and he even asked the Chinese militia ships to leave, as if giving them an eviction order, writing in Filipino The Chinese embassy in Manila issued a statement implicating Lorenzana’s statement as unprofessional and triggering irrational emotions.
Philippine fishermen have been suffering for a long time because of the difficulty of fishing in the South China Sea
Since taking office, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been leading a more pro-China foreign policy and has been looking to establish personal ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the South China Sea. But this has not yielded concrete results for the Philippines in the South China Sea sovereignty dispute, as China’s advancement and encroachment, especially in the Spratly Islands, has recently made the Philippines, also a claimant, intolerable.
Scott Harold, an expert on Asia-Pacific security policy at the Rand Corporation (Rand), a U.S. nonprofit think tank, told the station that this is indeed an interesting development. In fact, the Philippine public has long been more pro-U.S. and is not too happy about Duterte’s more pro-China approach to the South China Sea issue in particular.
The South China Sea in April is mostly good blue skies and white clouds. Weather forecasts show that the highest wind speed at sea on the 6th local time is 9.5 knots, or less than 20 kilometers per hour, and the waves are about 0.6 meters high. But China’s diplomatic system insists that Chinese fishing boats traveled thousands of miles to Niuyu Reef, about 175 nautical miles (about 300 kilometers) away from the Philippines’ Palawan Islands, to escape the wind, a common Chinese trick, and that the so-called fishing boats have two faces, with the “fishermen” on them possibly being militiamen.
Harold said, “These Chinese militia fishing boats sometimes still fish, but in an illegal way. If the Philippines only comes with law enforcement boats, they say, hey, we’re fishing in our own natural fishery; if the Philippine law enforcement boats come with one or two, they just come in and don’t care, or they become aggressive.”
Which is the best at building islands and reefs? China has built 1,800 soccer fields
China boasts that its strength can level the world, however, on the issue of the South China Sea, there is history to prove the way of bullying the small and the strong over the weak.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, cites a report by our English team that China’s claimed fishing boats have been frequenting the Spratly Islands for years, and in 2019 they were also spotted on NiuYuYu Reef, or on Meiji Reef and Yongshu Reef, which China has already occupied and built as military bases, but at that time only about 30 to 40 boats were out there. The sea seemed to form a wall. The Mischief Reef and the Huangyan Island in the Spratly Islands were established facts when China first seized the reefs and then built them. The Philippines fears a repeat of this history.
Gregory Poling, director of the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which has long tracked the situation in the South China Sea, said that China’s move from island-building and reef-building to militarization in the Spratlys, and the recent sudden and massive move in Niuyu Reef, is a geostrategic layout and consideration.
“This time it is because of the location of Niuyu Reef in the nine reefs of the Spratly Islands. In the Spratly Islands, Vietnam has four military bases and China has built two, and the Spratly Islands are a necessary link between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. For China, it’s like a relay station where you can park various facilities, much like Anchorage (for the United States).” Poling told reporters.
Long-term data tracked by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that China has built 3,200 acres of artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2013. That’s the equivalent of building more than 1,800 soccer fields.
In July 2016, an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled that historical evidence of China’s claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea and the map of the “nine-dashed line” it drew had no legal basis. However, Beijing, on the one hand, does not recognize the ruling and continues to militarize the disputed waters by building islands and reefs.
During his visit to the United States in 2015, Xi Jinping also claimed that China has no intention of militarizing its construction related to the South China Sea and that China upholds and defends the freedom of navigation and overflight under international law.
Polin told reporters that China is determined to show its “big fist makes sense” stance on the South China Sea, creating an established fact that it will not back down.
On the other hand, the “South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Program” of the Institute of Oceanography at Peking University, a Chinese think tank, also deliberately announced the movements of the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt through the South China Sea. In fact, however, the USS Roosevelt is not hiding its mission in the Indo-Pacific region, as it has been a routine mission for the U.S. military to pass through international waters in the South China Sea after completing joint military exercises with the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean.
Harold then said China is meant to tell the United States and U.S. regional allies, “We know where you are and we’re watching.” But he cautioned that this is a deliberately shaped narrative and cognitive warfare by China, and that Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Vietnam would be hard pressed to stand alone against China on the South China Sea. He believes and believes that the U.S. will continue to be present in the South China Sea, which is something that regional countries, including China, should keep in mind.
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