China has reacted strongly to a resolution adopted in the Philippine Senate urging the government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr to raise to the international community Beijing’s coercive activities in the disputed sea.
On Saturday morning, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel tried to prevent a wooden civilian boat hired by the Philippine military to deliver food, fuel, water and other supplies to the Marines deployed aboard BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal.
BRP Sierra Madre has been stuck on the shallow shoal for nearly 25 years and has served as an outpost for the Philippines guarding its national security interests in the disputed Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea.
China has been preventing the Philippines from bringing construction materials to the rusting naval transport vessel because it has been waiting for the World War II-vintage ship to collapse.
For the first time, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel trained its powerful water cannon on the small, wooden boat delivering supplies to BRP Sierra Madre.
The large Coast Guard vessel had been shadowing the wooden boat once it appeared on its horizon and it could not stop the wooden boat because there was danger the Chinese ship would run aground on the shallow waters around the shoal.
In the past, the Chinese Coast Guard trained its water cannons on helpless Filipino fishermen when they got near Scarborough Shoal in another part of the disputed South China Sea.
Scarborough Shoal is a rich fishing ground about 130 nautical miles west of Zambales, well within the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Ayungin Shoal is about 150 nautical miles west of Palawan in the Spratlys.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), in which China and the Philippines are both signatories, only the Philippines has the sovereign rights to explore and exploit the resources within its EEZ.
China has over-extended its EEZ limits, claiming the entire South China Sea as part of its territory based on the repudiated “nine-dash-line” policy.
It has excessive claims, infringing on the EEZ of smaller Southeast Asian states, like Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Using water cannons against smaller fishing boats is not new. China has been using water cannons against weaker Southeast Asian states.
Sometimes, the steel-hulled Chinese militia vessels would ram into smaller fishing boats, leaving behind fishermen tossed into the sea.
Last Saturday morning’s water cannon incident near Ayungin Shoal, or the Second Thomas Shoal, was a first deliberate attempt by China to prevent the Philippine re-supply mission.
Earlier, in June, Chinese vessels shadowed two Philippine Coast Guard ships escorting a wooden boat in a re-supply mission. Chinese militia vessels even tried to block the Philippine Coast Guard vessels and one nearly collided with a Chinese ship that made dangerous maneuvers.
The United States had condemned China’s unsafe and dangerous maneuvers, citing potential accidents that could escalate into a limited conflict between China and the Philippines.
China has been provoking the Philippines into engaging in a shooting war in the South China Sea because the Coast Guard and militia vessels were backed by powerful China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-Navy) vessels equipped with guided missiles.
The lightly armed Philippine Coast Guard ships would not know what hit them and could be obliterated if they fired upon Chinese militia boats and China’s PLA-Navy fired back.
The Philippines must exercise restraint and should not dare fire the first shot. China was laying a trap.
After the water cannon incident, there’s no way to know the extent of what China will do next to assert its claims in the South China Sea.
China has limitless “gray zone” tactics. Given its vast resources, it can do a lot of things short of starting a shooting war.
The Philippines can effectively fight back against China’s gray zone tactics by exposing its illegal and coercive activities in the South China Sea.
China does not want to lose face in the international community as a rising global superpower.
The Philippines can fight back. Last week, the Philippine Senate made the right decision to adopt a resolution to bring to the attention of the international community what China has been illegally doing in the South China Sea.
Some pro-China senators tried to derail a resolution filed by minority senator Risa Hontiveros, but it gained traction with the support of some senators, including Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.
It is now up to Bongbong Marcos to take action and direct the Department of Foreign Affairs to raise the issue before the United Nations General Assembly.
China has warned the Philippines that it will cross another red line if that thing happens. In 2013, the Philippines crossed the first red line when it brought a complaint against China to nullify its nine-dash-line claim on the South China Sea before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.
The Philippines won but China refused to recognize the PCA ruling. It was a legal and moral victory. It was a big slap on the face of China.
Raising the issue before the UN General Assembly will not be an easy task. The Philippines should learn its lesson from Nicaragua, which challenged a superpower, the United States. After five tries, Washington was forced to negotiate an amicable settlement.
China could make a similar move.
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