Beijing tests strike strength; Manila, allies hold joint drills
China carried out a combat patrol to test “strike capabilities” near a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea on Wednesday as the the Philippines launched two days of joint sea and air exercises with the United States, Canada and Australia in the same waters.
Tensions in the disputed waterway have spiked following a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels that have fanned fears of a wider conflict that could draw in Washington due to its mutual defense treaty with Manila.
Beijing said the maneuvers tested “the reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility, and joint strike capabilities of theater troops.”
Separately, the Chinese Coast Guard also conducted a patrol on Wednesday to “uphold its rights” around another group of disputed islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan, Beijing’s state media said.
Manila, on the other hand, said the multilateral drills were taking place west of Palawan, south of Scarborough Shoal and the nearest major landmass to the also-contested Spratly Islands.
Among the vessels deployed by the four powers were the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and a Philippine guided missile frigate and patrol ship, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said.
“Australia, Canada, the Philippines and the United States uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, as well as respect for maritime rights under international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the AFP said.
AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner said the exercise “underscores the commitment of our nations to ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” adding it would also “enhance our collective capabilities.”
China has long used its coastguard to assert its claims in the South China Sea, which analysts describe as “grey zone” harassment tactics that fall short of an outright act of war.
And while the Chinese military had been deployed near Scarborough Shoal in the past, one analyst told AFP Wednesday’s action showed they were “becoming more aggressive and forceful.”
“It’s meant to intimidate,” Jay Batongbacal, director of the Manila-based Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said.
“It’s definitely meant to send a message, a show of force,” he added.
Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said the fact China had specifically mentioned the shoal showed its “mounting dissatisfaction with Manila’s recent collaborative efforts with its allies and partners.”
Beijing’s use of combat patrols in retaliation, he said, “suggests that the Philippines has now become China’s second most-targeted adversary, trailing only Taiwan” – the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.
Three Chinese PLA Navy vessels were spotted tailing the ongoing Quad drills, officially known as a Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity.
For his part, retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio said joint patrols with like-minded states prove to be the strongest enforcement of Philippine sovereignty and legal maritime claims in the West Philippine Sea.
“The PH should hold more joint sails with like-minded states in the WPS. Everytime there is a joint sail, we and our like-minded friends rebut China’s claim that the waters and resources within the ten-dash line are China’s national territory,” Carpio told Manila Standard.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Its claims include the waters around Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc – which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 – where the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said Wednesday it had held joint sea and air patrols.
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks is 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Recent clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels have focused on Ayungin Shoal where a handful of Filipino troops are stationed on a navy vessel that Manila deliberately grounded on the reef in 1999 to assert its claims to the area.
One of the most serious incidents took place in June, when Chinese sailors brandishing weapons including knives and an axe boarded Philippine naval vessels during a resupply mission to the strategic reef.
The Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in the confrontation in which Beijing’s coast guard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment, including guns. With AFP
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline China says conducts ‘combat patrol’ near flashpoint Scarborough Shoal
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