Philippines, China clash over new South China Sea flash point
Concern is growing ahead of President Marcos' visit to China in New Year
MANILA/HANOI -- The Philippine military is beefing up its presence in the South China Sea following reports of new landfill work and mooring by Chinese ships in the area, potentially complicating President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s visit to Beijing starting Jan. 3.
Chinese fishing boats, which are militia ships in effect, carried out landfill work at four reef sites around the Spratly Islands, including Eldad Reef, which is located west of Palawan Island, Bloomberg reported last week. The Western Command (Wescom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines later confirmed the presence of the Chinese vessels.
The countries have long been embroiled in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, with regular incidents such as Chinese vessels shadowing a Philippine Navy supply boat around the Spratlys this month.
The Philippine foreign ministry accused China of violating the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed by Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2002, and also the 2016 ruling by a United Nations arbitral tribunal in The Hague that China has no legal base to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines denied the reported landfill work as "fake news."
The U.S. immediately sided with the Philippines, one of its military allies. The Department of State released a statement on Dec. 19, saying Washington "supports the Philippines' continued calls upon the People's Republic of China to respect the international law of the sea in the South China Sea."
The U.S. military considers the Philippines' geographic location as strategically important. Sitting south of Taiwan and along the eastern rim of the South China Sea, the archipelago could offer a staging area should an emergency arise in the Taiwan Strait.
The U.S. in the past effectively gave a tacit nod to China's occupation of Scarborough Shoal, located northwest of the Philippines and known as Huangyan Dao in China, enabling Beijing to establish its effective control on it.
Unlike his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who took a conciliatory stance on China, Marcos has stressed that the Philippines has no intention of conceding any of its territorial sovereignty under pressure from abroad.
He has said it is impossible to hold dialogue with China without referring to the question of the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine government's designation of the South China Sea. But it is unclear whether he can stay tough on China, which combined with Hong Kong forms the biggest market for the Southeast Asian nation's exports.
Vietnam is also showing signs of vigilance toward China while giving heed to amicable economic relations with the world's second-largest economy.
Vietnam is believed to have created roughly 1.7 square kilometers of land in the Spratly Islands in the second half of 2022, according to the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Given the creation of 2.2 sq. km over the past decade, the work has been evidently done at a feverish pitch this year.
All activities by Vietnam in the Spratly area are based on international law, a deputy spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, without making specific comments on the land reclamation.
Military tensions between Vietnam and China over the South China Sea have not boiled to the surface in recent years. But Vietnam has made multiple moves that are regarded as aimed at checking China. On Thursday, for example, it agreed with Indonesia to demarcate the boundaries of their exclusive economic zones in the body of water.
Among Southeast Asian nations, Vietnam, under single-party rule by the Vietnamese Communist Party, is growing more important to China standing guard against possible U.S. intervention. China may toughen its stance on the entire region if it comes to resent Vietnam's moves.