China tells the Philippines not to ‘stir up trouble’ over disputed shoal

MANILA - China on Tuesday told the Philippines not to “stir up trouble” after the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) removed

a floating barrier near a disputed shoal

that China purportedly put up to prevent Filipino fishermen from reaching resources-rich waters in the South China Sea.

“China firmly upholds the sovereignty and maritime rights and interests of the Huangyan island,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters, adding: “We advise the Philippines not to provoke or stir up trouble.”

But the Philippines stood its ground on Tuesday, saying it was “well within its rights” to remove any barrier at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which it refers to as Bajo de Masinloc.

“The Philippines is well within its rights to remove any barrier in Bajo de Masinloc since it infringes on our maritime rights,” National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is also pushing back. Hanoi has lodged a protest

over China’s installation of two automatic vessel identification stations

in the Paracel islands, saying it is a violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty.

“All activities on the Paracel Islands without Vietnam’s permission violate the nation’s sovereignty and are completely invalid,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement.

This followed media reports about Chinese-built ship ID stations at North Reef and Bombay Reef in the Paracels. 

The Philippines said there were no signs of a stand-off with China, despite the heightened rhetoric.

China’s coast guard even removed remnants of the ball-buoy barrier from Scarborough Shoal, PCG spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said, adding that China was measured in its response.

The Philippines said on Monday it executed a “special operation”, with coast guard personnel posing as fishermen in a small boat, to cut the 300m barrier at the shoal, one of Asia’s

most contested maritime features,

a move that could further strain ties that have deteriorated in the past year.

Commodore Tarriela said four Chinese vessels were in the area when a Philippine ship, with journalists on board, approached and were “not that aggressive”.

The Chinese took away the barrier, a few hours after discovering it was no longer aligned and blocking the lagoon, Commodore Tarriela told DWPM radio.

“They might still return the floating barrier once again. They might still do shadowing and dangerous manoeuvres once again,” he told CNN Philippines, adding that the Philippines “will not back down” and will maintain its presence in the sea.

Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot about 200km off the Philippines and within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), has been the site of decades of on-off disputes over sovereignty.

China on Monday made no direct mention of the barrier, but its Foreign Ministry said the Chinese Coast Guard moved on Friday to repel a Philippine vessel “intruding in what were indisputably Chinese waters”.

The Philippines and China have, in recent months, repeatedly sparred over the shoal, after years when tensions eased under then President Rodrigo Duterte.

Ties have soured in 2023, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who authorised the cutting of the cordon, seeks to strengthen relations with his nation’s decades-long ally, the United States.

Such efforts included giving the US military expanded access to Philippine bases.

Vessels of the two countries have faced off several times in 2023 elsewhere in the Philippine EEZ, such as at the Second Thomas Shoal.

There, the Philippines has accused China of dangerous and aggressive acts in blocking resupply missions to a handful of troops stationed on a rusty, grounded warship.

China says that the occupation is illegal.

Late on Monday, Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times posted an article that quoted an expert saying Philippine decision-makers were acting under the influence of a Washington bent on instigating conflicts in the South China Sea to contain Beijing.

Control of the shoal, about 850km off mainland China, is a sensitive issue for Beijing, which for the past decade has maintained a constant presence of coast guard ships and fishing vessels in the area.

The rocky outcrop figured in a case the Philippines took to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claim to most of the South China Sea had no basis under international law.

China

does not recognise the ruling

. REUTERS