The Philippines summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday after the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons on Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea over the weekend. “Our Foreign Secretary summoned Ambassador Huang today (Monday) and handed him a note verbale including photos and videos of what happened, and we are awaiting their response,” the president explained. Filipino Ferdinand Marcos Jr at the press.
Manila on Sunday accused the Chinese Coast Guard of firing water cannons at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, calling the actions “illegal” and “dangerous”. China said for its part that it had taken the “necessary measures” against Philippine boats which it accuses of having entered its waters “illegally”.
“We are attached to Ayungin Atoll”
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea despite rival claims from the Philippines, Vietnam or Malaysia, ignoring a 2016 international judgment against it. “China’s position, of course, is to say ‘it’s ours, so we’re defending it’ and we, for our part, are saying ‘no, it’s ours, so we’re defending it’. That therefore becomes a gray area that we are discussing,” added Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Atoll. We are committed to Ayungin Atoll,” National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters, using the name Filipino to qualify the atoll of Second Thomas in the Spratly Islands. He said it was “in recent memory” the strongest Chinese presence on the atoll.
There were only two (Philippine) coast guard ships and two supply boats against six huge Chinese coast guard ships and two Chinese militia boats as well as other People’s Liberation Army ships all near the area”, he continued, assuring that at one point a Chinese coastguard vessel approached “within 18 meters” of a vessel of their counterparts in danger of causing a collision.
International convictions
Since coming to power in June 2022, the Philippine president has insisted he will not let China trample on his country’s rights at sea, and has moved closer to the United States. According to the Philippine Coast Guard, the incident happened on Saturday while they were escorting vessels carrying supplies for Philippine military personnel stationed on Second Thomas.
“The Philippine Coast Guard strongly condemns the dangerous maneuvers of the Chinese Coast Guard and the illegal use of water cannons against (their) vessels,” they said at the time. The US State Department has condemned China’s “dangerous” actions, saying they were carried out by its coastguards and “maritime militias”.
The British and Australian embassies as well as the European Union have expressed concern. The Canadian mission in the Philippines condemned the Chinese intervention as “dangerous and provocative” while the representative of Japan described the incident as “totally unacceptable”. Manila complains that its vessels patrolling these disputed waters are regularly watched or blocked by coastguards or Chinese navy boats.
Exacerbated tensions between Manila and Beijing
Saturday’s incident was the first since November 2021 when the Chinese Coast Guard used water cannons against a Philippine supply mission in Second Thomas. Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes in the South China Sea, but former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was reluctant to criticize its powerful neighbor.
Tensions between Manila and Beijing escalated earlier this year after a Chinese Coast Guard vessel allegedly used a military-grade laser against a Philippine Coast Guard boat near Second Thomas Atoll. After China occupied Mischief Reef in the mid-1990s, the Philippines beached a decommissioned warship on the nearby shoal to assert its territorial claims. Members of the Philippine Navy are based there.
Second Thomas Atoll is located approximately 200 km from the Philippine island of Palawan and over 1,000 km from the nearest major Chinese island, Hainan. In April, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel cut off the Philippine patrol vessel Malapascua, which was carrying journalists near Second Thomas.