A vessel from China’s coastguard has blocked two Philippine government ships for hours a short distance from the south-east Asian country’s coast, in a further escalation of tension between the two nations in the disputed South China Sea.
The operation
on Saturday night took place just 35 nautical miles from the Philippines’
coastline, and comes as Beijing pushes back against Washington’s high-profile
moves this week to bolster Manila, its ally, against China.
The Chinese
coastguard ship met a Philippine maritime research vessel and an escort ship
from the Philippine coastguard, according to satellite imagery and ship
tracking data collected by SeaLight, an open-source research initiative that tracks
Chinese maritime activity in the area.
The tracking
data showed that the vessels met on the boundary of the nine-dash line, with
which Beijing marks its extensive but vague claim over most of the South China
Sea.
The two
Philippine vessels stopped for more than eight hours after the Chinese
coastguard ship blocked their way, and only resumed their journey north-west
early on Sunday.
“This really
is unprecedented: they intercepted them just as they crossed that nine-dash
line claim,” said Ray Powell, SeaLight director.
Neither the
Philippines nor China has commented on the incident.
Powell said
the Chinese move was probably a reaction to last week’s first ever
US-Japan-Philippines summit in Washington, when Joe Biden, Philippines
president Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida voiced
concerns about China’s “dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China
Sea”.
In recent
weeks, the US has stepped up warnings to China over its coercive activity in
the South China Sea and particularly around Second Thomas Shoal, a reef called
Ren’ai Jiao by China and claimed by both Beijing and Manila. The Philippines
keeps control over the reef with a rusting former warship grounded there in
1999.
Washington has
reiterated several times that the US-Philippines mutual defence treaty “extends
to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft —
including those of its coast guard — anywhere in the South China Sea”.
On Friday, the
US and the Philippines national security advisers joined talks between their
defence and foreign secretaries for the first time, in the latest sign of
expanding security co-operation.
Beijing has
reacted furiously. It summoned diplomats from the US and Japan and accused both
countries of engaging in bloc politics and interfering in its internal affairs.
On Thursday
China’s foreign ministry accused Marcos of having reneged on a bilateral
understanding on the Second Thomas Shoal issue. The Philippines has
abandoned the current administration’s understanding with China on the Ren’ai
Jiao issue,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The Philippine
ships blocked on Saturday had earlier left the port for a hydrographic survey
of an area some 80 nautical miles north of Scarborough Shoal, another small
piece of land disputed between Beijing and Manila. China wrested control of the
shoal from the Philippines in 2012.
Both shoals
sit inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, giving Manila the sole
right to survey and exploit resources under the UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea. A 2016 arbitration tribunal ruling said China’s extensive claims in the
South China Sea, including over the two shoals and surrounding waters, were in
violation of Unclos.
In March,
Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at a Philippines vessel headed
towards the Second Thomas Shoal in two separate incidents, injuring Filipino
soldiers and damaging Manila’s vessels. Marcos in response said the Philippines
would implement countermeasures against China, though he did not provide any
details.
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