China patrols Scarborough Shoal after Philippines warns of threat

BEIJING – China’s military and coast guard said they carried out patrols near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on May 31, a day after the Philippine defence minister said Manila remained under threat from Beijing despite a recent easing in US-China tensions.

Philippine and US forces held a five-day maritime exercise in the same waters last week near the Scarborough Shoal, the third such drill in 2026, to strengthen interoperability and maritime security, the Philippine military said on May 31.

Scarborough Shoal is one of Asia’s most contested maritime features and has become a frequent flashpoint between China and the Philippines over sovereignty and fishing rights.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said in a statement on the WeChat platform that its naval and air units carried out combat readiness patrols in the “territorial sea and airspace” of the atoll and its surrounding areas.

“Such patrols serve as an effective countermeasure to cope with all sorts of rights violations and provocative acts,” the command said.

The China Coast Guard said in a separate statement that it conducted law enforcement patrols near the Scarborough Shoal, adding that since May, it had dealt with ships engaged in “illegal rights-violation activities in accordance with laws and regulations”, without elaborating.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said the exercise with the US from May 26 to 30, including visit-board-search-and-seizure drills, underscored both countries’ commitment to stronger defence ties, improved maritime domain awareness and support for a rules-based order at sea.

The Philippine Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

The patrols took place as defence ministers, military chiefs and policymakers from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond gathered in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence forum.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the summit, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr said the Philippines remains under “severe threat” from China both territory-wise and politically, despite a recent thaw in US-China tensions following the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier in May.

“We have no choice but really to be resilient and to stand up against Chinese aggression,” he said.

The Philippines and China have been locked in repeated maritime stand-offs in the South China Sea in recent years, at times resulting in collisions between vessels and injuries to personnel.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea via a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China’s claims were not supported by international law, a decision that Beijing rejects.

Taiwan makes broadly similar claims to China’s in the South China Sea. REUTERS