On March 31, an order fortifying maritime security in the Philippines following a mounting number of confrontations with China in the disputed area of the South China Sea was made public. Whilst China was not mentioned, the order followed an incident the previous week, when China used water cannons to disrupt a Philippine resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal for sailors living on the intentionally grounded Sierra Madre. The order expands the Philippines maritime council and the role of the military in supporting the council in order to strengthen the Philippines’ maritime security. The order reflects rising tensions in the region as China continues to conduct operations in the South China Sea.
Following China’s disruption of the resupply mission, Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said that the Philippines would implement countermeasures in response to the “illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous attacks” from China’s coastguard. In the order, Marcos said, “Despite efforts to promote stability and security in our maritime domain, the Philippines continues to confront a range of serious challenges that threaten territorial integrity, but also the peaceful existence of Filipinos.”
The South China Sea, which serves as a channel for over $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, is claimed almost entirely by China under the so-called nine-dash line, despite the 2016 international court ruling that this had no legal basis. In recent years, Beijing has stepped up its activity in the area, parts of which are claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, using the China Coast Guard and its large maritime militia in order to intimidate other countries in the region. Its continued harassment of Philippine ships serves to increase already heightened tensions amidst China’s other activities in the region, which have raised international concerns. On April 11, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a first-ever trilateral summit between the countries regarding China’s increasingly aggressive activities in the South China Sea. Biden emphasized Washington’s continued commitment to the mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States. “We express our serious concerns about the People’s Republic of China’s [PRC] dangerous and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea,” the leaders said in a joint statement, emphasizing opposition to China’s “dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea.” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that the statement was a “wanton smear attack”.
As pressure increases in the region, peaceful resolution appears to be a long way off. On April 18, a spokesperson from China’s embassy in Manila claimed that the two countries had agreed on a “new model” to manage tensions in the Second Thomas Shoal (Reuters). Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro responded to these claims on Saturday (April 27), saying that his department was “not aware of, nor is it a party to, any internal agreement with China”. In a statement, Teodoro stated that the Philippines would not enter into an agreement that would damage its claims on the waterway and referred to claims of a bilateral agreement “propaganda”. China’s continued maritime operations and ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea can only serve to intensify tensions and potentially escalate towards war. The attacks on Philippine vessels and other aggressive activities in the waterway must end in order to begin to work towards a solution to hostilities in the region.
