Hong Kong: Another standoff is brewing in the South China Sea, after swarms of Chinese fishing boats and subversive Chinese militia in disguise arrived and parked themselves in the Union Banks.
The fact is that Union Banks – and Whitsun Reef, where 220 Chinese vessels initially congregated in early March – is well within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines. China is making a move from its playbook for additional maritime territory.
If the Philippines does not respond, it can expect to wave goodbye to this feature in the Union Banks, one located just 129km from its own strategically important Thitu Island.
When told to leave Whitsun Reef by the Philippine government, the Chinese Embassy in Manila haughtily responded that it is part of Chinese territory. “Chinese fishing vessels have been fishing in its adjacent waters for many years. Recently, some Chinese fishing vessels take shelter near Niu’e Jiao [the Chinese name for Whitsun Reef] due to rough sea conditions. It has been a normal practice for Chinese fishing vessels to take shelter under such circumstances. There is no Chinese Maritime Militia as alleged. Any speculation in such helps nothing but causes unnecessary irritation. It is hoped that the situation could be handled in an objective and rational manner.”
The embassy’s statement was replete with hubris, disinformation and outright lies, igniting strong emotion among the Philippine populace.
In response, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana responded on 4 April, “The utter disregard by the Chinese Embassy in Manila of international law, especially the UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] to which China is a party, is appalling. Its Nine-Dash Line claim is without any factual or legal basis. This, together with its so-called historical claim, was flatly and categorically rejected by the arbitral tribunal. The Philippines’ claims stand on solid ground, while China’s do not.”
Lorenzana added, “The continued presence of Chinese maritime militias in the area reveals their intent to further occupy features in the West Philippine Sea. They have done this before at Panatag Shoal [Scarborough shoal]…and at Panganiban Reef [Mischief Reef], brazenly violating Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights under international law … China should refrain from conducting activities that disturb regional and international peace and security.”
China brazenly won de facto possession of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012, maintaining a continual paramilitary presence at the maritime feature since then after muscling out the Philippines. Many expect China to someday reclaim land and create a military base there as it has done at seven other locations in the Spratly Islands.
Scarborough Shoal is much more to the east and therefore closer to the Philippines, so it would help create a wider network of island bases for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). For that reason, Chinese activity at Scarborough Shoal is closely monitored.
However, China chose to make its latest foray, a land grab, if you will, at Whitsun Reef instead, the largest reef in the Union Banks and 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza on Palawan Island in the Philippines. In March, the Philippine military and government expressed deep concern at the presence of a stunning couple of hundred Chinese fishing boats lined up with military precision at Whitsun Reef.
Even Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has proven to be something of a lapdog to Beijing, was forced to complain. Manila lodged a formal diplomatic protest to Beijing, though Duterte has been quiet on the matter since then. Last year, a defeatist Duterte stated that China was in “possession” of the South China Sea and that it was, therefore, futile to act against it. Duterte also promulgates a false binary range of options – to go to war with China or to totally accede to Beijing.
Certainly, nobody expects Manila to go to war against China, but the country needs to stand up for what it is entitled under international law. Firstly, in July 2016 the Philippines won a resounding victory in the international court of law when the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in its favour and lambasted China for its outrageous maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea. The court ruled that Chinese territorial claims, including its Nine-Dash Line, have absolutely no merit or legal basis. However, Duterte has frittered away that legal and moral victory with his obeisance to China.
Secondly, the Philippines has a longstanding Mutual Defense Treaty with the USA, something that other neighbours like Malaysia and Vietnam do not have as they too wrestle with Chinese assertiveness. This treaty promises that the USA would militarily support the Philippines should the country or its forces come under attack.
Thus, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated positively on 28 March: “The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of the PRC’s maritime militia amassing at Whitsun Reef. We will always stand by our allies and stand up for the rules-based international order.”
The USA is pursuing a multilateral approach to stand up to China, including forging cooperative groups and alliances to resist Chinese rule-breaking. This activity by China in the Spratly Islands has all the initial hallmarks of a foreign policy challenge for US President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Teddy Locsin, the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, is guilty of following Duterte’s limp policy with China. Two days after a trip to China to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he tweeted, “China can say what it wants; the Philippines will do what it must to keep what’s hers by right. Irrelevant whether we possess commensurate military power to meet the challenge; we will not yield but die – or trigger World War 3. Not a bad outcome; living is overrated. Honour is all.”
Again we see that false dichotomy of two extremes routinely presented by the Philippine government – either surrender or war. Neither extreme is necessary, but it does illustrate the extraordinary success that Chinese pressure and propaganda has had on the leadership of the Philippines.
The Chinese official narrative that these are mere fishing boats and crews sheltering from inclement weather is patently false. Indeed, research proves that elements of the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM), a subset of the PLA’s long chain of command, are heavily present in the Union Banks. Indeed, the Chinese embassy’s claims that there is no such entity as the PAFMM are a bald-faced lie, since the Chinese government has formally mentioned the militia’s existence on numerous occasions.
Important research has been done by Professor Andrew Erickson and Ryan Martinson, both of whom belong to the China Maritime Studies Institute of the Naval War College in the USA. Using freely available data from Chinese automatic identification system (AIS) tracking websites, which show the locations and voyages of vessels, the two American scholars identified seven fishing boats at Whitsun Reef as being among the “Fancheng Nine”, a group of nine boats that work for an obscure company called Taishan Fancheng Fisheries Development.