“Creative analogies and play with words don’t hide real problems. This is China’s refusal to comply with international law,” the Philippines said.
After a series of conflict incidents in the South China Sea, on March 10, the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) rejected accusations that China’s Communist Party (CCP) was a US ally and that other political parties were looking back on territorial disputes with China.
CCP Foreign Minister Wang Yi argued on March 7 that covering “scripts written by external forces” and Western media was designed to make Beijing look bad.
The MFA statement dismissed the King’s allegations as “play of words,” claiming that the actions of the Philippines are driven solely by national interests.
The MFA called China to “recognize that the Philippines is an independent, sovereign state, and that its actions and decisions are fully driven by national interests and the interests and well-being of the Filipinos.”
“Creative analogies and play with words don’t hide real problems. This is China’s refusal to comply with international law,” the statement continued.
International law includes the 1982 United Nations Law Convention for the Sea (UNCLOS) that designates up to 200 miles of coastal waters as part of coastal waters (EEZs) up to 200 miles from the Philippines coastline. This includes the Western Sea, known locally as the Western Philippine Sea. The Hague Arbitration Award in 2016 reaffirmed this designation and opposed CCP’s territorial claims in the region.
The MFA also said that China’s actions in the region, part of a larger region known as the South China Sea, are “illegal, forced, aggressive and deceptive.”
The contested waters
The conflict-based waters originally fit within the CCP’s so-called “Nine Dash Line” boundaries, expanding to include the democratic Taiwan, which was later introduced to become the “10 Dash Line” in 2023. Brunei.
China, like the Philippines, is a signatory to UNCLOS, according to the US Economic Security Review Board in July 2016. But that has not stopped the CCP from sucking up the arbitration award. Instead, it leaps towards the 1947 map released by the then-Kuo Mintan (KMT) nationalist government in China, as noted in its January 2013 publication, “Nine Dash Lines in the South China Sea: History, Status and Implications.”
The Nine Dash Line was the 11 dash line, first drawn by the Republic of China (ROC) in 1947. Maozedon accepted this during his domination from 1949, according to Stanford Publishing’s 2015 publication, Mao: a revolution resolved. However, Mao removed two lines by the end of his rule in 1976, at a moment of communist camaraderie, allowing Vietnam to effectively assert ownership of the Gulf of Tonkin.
The CCP attempted to carry out a reef terraforming the reefs on Splatley Island, creating a surface area of nearly 3,000 acres between 2013 and 2015, according to a second Economic Security Review Board review in December 2016.
The report cited concerns about ecological damages from these activities and possible conflicts between Chinese fishing vessels and “other claims.”
Less than ten years later, these fears were realized. It is not through a collision between a fishing boat and a Coast Guard vessel.
An attempt to control China
On August 26, 2024, Philippine Coast Guard Jay Taliella posted video footage to X, depicting Chinese ships, and announced that the Chinese naval fleet would “contain 40 (CCG) vessels, including 60) ships, and three (3) People’s Liberation Navy (3) People’s Liberation Army (Plain). The mission will restock one of its own Coast Guard ships that patrol the Escoda Shoals in the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea.
A few days later, Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Force, told a Manila journalist that the US is open to escorting Filipino ships through the troubled seas.
The escalation explained that a Chinese ship plunged into a Philippine Coast Guard vessel causing 49 feet of damage to the hull, while another Chinese ship thrusts its water cannon.
The clash took place despite Chinese authorities agreeing not to interfere with supply in the Philippines. I ran around the ship and purposely grounded at the second Thomas Scholl.
On August 31, then-state spokesman Matthew Miller responded to another incident in a Chinese ship that plunged into a Philippine ship.
In a now-archived statement, Miller explained that “China Coast Guard vessels have intentionally collided three times, saying that the Philippine Coast Guard vessels will exercise their freedom of voyage in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, causing damage to the vessels and jeopardizing the safety of their crew.”
The Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper, reported on Chinese experts who argued that the Philippines “has no worries about the safety of vessels, aircraft and Xianbin Jiao (Sabina Shoal) staff. It only cares whether actions in the (south) China Sea can win “support” certain external countries. ”
A collection of emotions
In light of these incidents, President Joe Biden, Prime Minister of Isba Island, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. effectively met in early January.
The conference followed the Japan-Philippine defense agreement, which focused on the need for a trilateral partnership between the three countries and allowed vessels to access to transport each other’s territorial water.
The agreement continued several months after Chinese aircraft first entered Japanese territory.
Lisa Hontiveros, a minority leader in the Philippine Senate, placed emphasis on China’s activities in the region, saying, “China hasn’t started the year right.”
“Instead of maintaining regional peace, (IT) chose to create more obstruction,” Hontiveros said.
Another incident occurred on February 19, when a Chinese naval helicopter caused a stir over a Philippine patrol aircraft.
The incident sparked accusations from the US ambassador of the Philippines’ Marie Kay L. Carlson.
“We condemn the dangerous operations by PLA Navy helicopters that put pilots and passengers at risk on the Philippine Air Mission. We call on China to refrain from compulsory actions and to resolve its disputes peacefully in accordance with international law,” Carlson said in X.
