Chinese warships tail joint sail in West Philippine Sea

September 30, 2024 | 2:18pm

MANILA, Philippines — Two Chinese warships shadowed the Philippines’ joint drills with the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand in the West Philippine Sea on Saturday, September 28.

The military saw the People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels “tailing” and “monitoring” the joint sail of the five countries without outright interfering with the maritime drills, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Sunday, September 29.

The Chinese ships got as close as around half a nautical mile (“1,000 yards”) to 14 nautical miles, but showed “no aggressive maneuvers,” said Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea.  

“[The Chinese ships] acted in a professional manner,” Trinidad said, adding that the incident proves China “behaves” during similar maritime drills. 

The joint drills — the fourth overall and the first with New Zealand— “proceeded as planned without any interference,” Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, AFP spokesperson, said in a statement.
 
On the same day of the five countries’ so-called multilateral maritime cooperative activity in the waters off northern Luzon, Beijing announced its own naval and air exercises around Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc).

The Southern Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy said in a statement that it held “routine” training and maritime and airspace patrol near Scarborough Shoal, which China calls Huangyan Dao.

Same area? The exact location of the five-country exercise in the West Philippine Sea was not disclosed. However, the AFP on Saturday said it was held under the area of operations of the Northern Luzon Command, which includes Scarborough Shoal.

While the military spotted the two Chinese warships, it did not receive any reports on China’s conduct of sea and air drills near the disputed feature, the AFP said. 

Trinidad sees Beijing’s announcement of their maritime drills as a way to appease their domestic audience.

“So we have to understand that China has to do that for their internal audience so they do not appear weak to them,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.

Trinidad said that activities in the five-country maritime exercise involved training on division tactics, communications checks, steaming information, and increasing interoperability between modern navies. 

The safety of the participating countries’ vessels during the joint patrol was secured by the “protocols in place,” the AFP said.  

The five countries’ assertion of their naval presence in Philippine waters comes a day after high-level talks between Beijing and Washington on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday. 

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, according to the US State Department, reiterated the US’ condemnation of Beijing’s “dangerous and destabilizing actions” in the disputed waters. 

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Blinken that the US should not “provoke problems” in the area. 

The vessels deployed by Australia, Japan and New Zealand for the maritime drills previously sailed through the Taiwan Strait days before reaching the South China Sea, according to a USNI report. 

The Scarborough Shoal was the site of a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine forces in 2012 that ended with Beijing taking control of the resource-rich area.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims by the Philippines and other countries, and ignoring an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

To press its claims, Beijing deploys coast guard and other boats to patrol the waterway and has turned several reefs into artificial islands it has militarized.