China says Philippines has ‘provoked trouble’ in South China Sea with US backing

BEIJING – China accused the Philippines on Dec 13 of having “provoked trouble” in the South China Sea with American backing, a week after Beijing and Manila

traded accusations

over a new confrontation in the disputed waters.

“The Philippine side, with US support and solicitation, has been stirring up trouble in many spots in the South China Sea,” Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Defence Ministry, said on its official WeChat account.

“The Philippines is well aware that the scope of its territory is determined by a series of international treaties and has never included China’s” Spratly islands and Scarborough Shoal, he added.

Beijing and Manila have been involved in 2024 in a series of confrontations at reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea. They are concerned China’s expansive claim encroaches into their exclusive economic zones (EEZs), non-territorial waters that extend 370km from the coasts of a nation’s land.

The Philippines’ National Maritime Council and its National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest remarks from Beijing. The US Navy’s 7th Fleet also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Philippines officials said last week that Chinese coast guard vessels fired water cannon and sideswiped a Manila fisheries bureau boat on the way to deliver supplies to Filipino fishermen around Scarborough Shoal, a move that drew condemnation from the US.

China’s coast guard said four Philippine ships had attempted to enter waters it described as its own around Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island.

China submitted nautical charts earlier in December to the UN that it said supported its claims to the waters, which a 2016 international tribunal found to be a long-established fishing ground for fishermen of many nationalities.

Following the charts’ submission, a spokesman for the Philippines’ National Maritime Council said China’s claims were baseless and illegal.

The 2016 tribunal ruled that China’s claim has no basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), and that its blockade around Scarborough Shoal was in breach of international law.

Beijing has never recognised the decision.

Sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal has never been established.

The Philippines and other members of Asean have spent years negotiating a

code of conduct

with Beijing for the strategic waterway, with some nations in the bloc insisting that it be based on Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

EEZs give the coastal nation jurisdiction over living and non-living resources in the water and on the ocean floor. REUTERS