China took an increasingly aggressive stance toward the Philippines this week, threatening to use force to repel civilian activists who are bringing supplies to Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal.
The activists celebrated their supply mission as a “major victory” over Chinese aggression and vowed to continue their efforts.
A Philippine group called Atin Ito (“This Is Ours”) arranged a flotilla of five commercial ships and roughly a hundred fishing boats to bring supplies to the Scarborough Shoal, which lies within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines, but China falsely claims.
“The mission achieved a major victory when its advance team reached the vicinity of Panatag Shoal on May 15 (and) was able to supply the fishers in the area,” Atin Ito spokesperson Emman Hizon declared on Thursday.
Filipinos generally refer to the Scarborough Shoal as Panatag, while the Chinese call it Huangyan Island or Huangyan Dao.
According to Hizon, Chinese forces were able to block the main civilian flotilla from approaching the shoal, forcing it to turn back when it was about 50 nautical miles away. The advance team, however, slipped through and supplied the fishermen, who were in turn bullied away by Chinese forces after the resupply mission was completed.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said it dispatched ships to ensure the safety of the civilian flotilla and used aircraft to monitor the encounter, but did not interfere.
The PCG said it observed no less than 19 Chinese vessels swarming around the Scarborough Shoal during the encounter, plus two Chinese Coast Guard ships shadowing the Atin Ito flotilla. PCG aircraft also observed two floating barriers constructed by the Chinese to keep Filipino fishermen from entering the shoal.
Chinese state media cast the incident as a defeat for the Filipinos, insisting that Chinese coast guard ships conducted “regular rights defense and law enforcement activities” to drive away lawbreaking activists.
China claimed its paramilitary actions were conducted “in Huangyan Island waters in accordance with the law,” even though its territorial claims have been rejected by international courts.
China’s claims to the region were decisively rejected by the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in July 2016, but Beijing ignored the humiliating defeat and has been trying to seize the islands by force, using coast guard vessels and armed “maritime militia” crews to bully Filipinos away from the shoal’s bountiful fishing grounds.
During periods of good relations between Beijing and Manila, Chinese forces around the shoal tend to look the other way and allow Filipino fishermen to ply their trade but, as soon as relations turn sour, China locks up the fishing grounds and makes belligerent statements about protecting its “rights” and “sovereignty.”
“If the Philippine side abuses China’s goodwill and infringes on China’s territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction, China will safeguard its rights and take necessary countermeasures in accordance with the law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned on Wednesday.
“The relevant responsibilities and consequences will be borne entirely by the Philippine side,” Wang added darkly, hinting that an escalation of military force could be on the table.
China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday snarled that Beijing is running out of “goodwill and patience” with the Filipinos and their “political performances.”
The Global Times dismissed claims by the PCG that it had nothing to do with the civilian flotilla, charging instead that the resupply mission was mere performance art to camouflage an organized Philippine government effort to undermine China’s control of the Scarborough Shoal.
“What they are truly doing is using Philippine ‘fishermen’ as a backdrop to provoke incidents, attempting to interfere with the normal law enforcement of the China Coast Guard and the regular fishing activities of Chinese fishermen. At the same time, they aim to gain sympathy from the international community through Western media, smear China, and incite a new round of friction or even confrontation between China and the Philippines at Huangyan Dao,” the Global Times hissed.
Of course, every Chinese Communist conspiracy theory leads inexorably to the United States. In this case, the Global Times claimed the Philippine government was acting on behalf of a secret U.S. military plan to take control of the South China Sea by turning all of its other powers against China – the communists using water cannon and floating barriers to chase Filipino fishermen away from the grounds worked by their great-grandfathers.
According to the Global Times, the Filipinos betrayed China’s friendly “gentleman’s agreement” and “goodwill arrangements” to permit some fishing at the Scarborough Shoal because they became greedy, and American capitalists offered them plush rewards for betraying China.
The Global Times echoed the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s ominous statements by advising the Philippines to “carefully consider who is applauding its show in the South China Sea” and “where these things that do not belong to it will ultimately push it.”
The Biden administration was fairly quiet about Wednesday’s nautical drama, but in March the State Department reiterated its support for “our ally the Philippines” against China’s “provocative actions.”
“The United States reaffirms that Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its Coast Guard – anywhere in the South China Sea,” the State Department pointed out.
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