By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
China is underscoring its disputed claims in the South China Sea by ramping up actions against Philippine ships and territory that Manila says is in its exclusive economic zone.
According to multiple reports, China deployed more coast guard ships on June 14 to stop a Philippine vessel from releasing small boats to land on islets near a reef that both countries claim. The Chinese coast guard released video of the incident and told the Global Times it warned the Philippine ship in both Chinese and English and then took what it called “restrictive measures.”
The Philippines reportedly denied that sailors on board its ship pointed guns at the Chinese, saying they were only holding on to their weapons.
All this took place just hours before China began a new policy of detaining foreigners in disputed areas of the South China Sea for 60 days without trial. Beijing also said that foreign ships that have “illegally entered China’s territorial waters and the adjacent waters may be detained in accordance with the law…”
Warrior Talks to Principal Deputy, Assistant Secretary of the Army – Acquisition, Logistics & Technology
The dispute all has to do with two shoals that lie within the Philippines 200-mile exclusive economic zone. China has ignored that designation and claims 90 percent of the South China Sea as its own. The result: in recent months, China’s coast guard has used water cannon and collision tactics to harass Philippine supply and patrol ships.
Leaders of the Group of Seven issued a statement June 14 on what it called China’s “dangerous” incursions in the region. “We oppose China’s militarization, and coercive and intimidation activities in the South China Sea,” the statement read.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has pushed back against the Chinese claims. His government wants to explore the part of the South China Sea off the country’s western coast, looking for valuable oil and natural gas deposits.
The dispute has led the Philippines to improve its ties with the US. In the last few months, the two countries conducted several military exercises involving as many as 16,000 troops. The latest one was to see how soldiers would react to an invasion in the northern Philippine jungle.
Those exercises gave the US the opportunity to deploy medium-range missiles – the first time since the Cold War that the US has placed such missiles in Asia.
The Typhon launcher can fire the Tomahawk cruise missile and the SM-6 supersonic missile. Those two missiles could strike targets in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea – along with cities on China’s eastern coast.
Meanwhile, in February, the US and the Philippines agreed to expand the American military presence. US forces were given access to four more military bases. And both countries say there has been substantial progress in the construction of American facilities at five other bases where US troops had already been granted access.
