China launches air and sea patrols near flashpoint Scarborough Shoal in South China Sea

BEIJING - China on Aug 7 carried out a combat patrol to test “strike capabilities” near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a flashpoint area also claimed by the Philippines.

Beijing has continued to press its claims to almost the entire South China Sea despite an international tribunal ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Scarborough Shoal is 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

China in 2012 used coast guard vessels to take control of the shoal, a triangular chain of reefs and rocks that are part of a rich fishing ground and had long been used by Filipino fishermen as a safe harbour.

On Aug 7, the Chinese military’s Southern Theatre Command said it had “organised a joint combat patrol in the sea and air space” near the area.

The manoeuvres tested “the reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility, and joint strike capabilities of theatre troops”, Beijing said.

The Chinese coast guard also conducted a separate patrol on Aug 7 to “uphold its rights” around another group of contested islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan, Beijing’s state media said.

China has long used its coast guard to press its claims in the South China Sea.

And while the Chinese military had been deployed near the Scarborough Shoal in the past, one analyst told AFP Aug 7’s action showed they were “becoming more aggressive and forceful”.

“It’s meant to intimidate,” Mr Jay Batongbacal, director of the Manila-based Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said.

“It’s definitely meant to send a message, a show of force,” he added.

Mr Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said the fact China had specifically mentioned the shoal showed its “mounting dissatisfaction with Manila’s recent collaborative efforts with its allies and partners”.

Beijing’s use of combat patrols in retaliation, he said, “suggests that the Philippines has now become China’s second most-targeted adversary, trailing only Taiwan”, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

But Associate Professor Chong Ja Ian from the National University of Singapore said it would be best to wait and “see what the drill actually involves”.

“If the tit-for-tat remains restrained, then it’s just posturing by the different sides,” he told AFP.

There has been

a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels

in the South China Sea in recent months, including around a warship grounded for years by Manila on the contested Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

One of the most serious incidents took place in June, when

Chinese sailors brandishing weapons

including knives and an axe boarded Philippine naval vessels near the strategic reef.

The Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in the confrontation in which Beijing’s coast guard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns.

Beijing blamed the escalation on Manila and maintains its actions to protect its claims are legal and proportional.

In recent weeks, the Philippines and China have

agreed on a “provisional arrangement”

for resupplying Filipino troops stationed on Second Thomas Shoal and also to increase the number of communication lines to resolve disputes in the waterway.

In July,

the United States said it would provide US$500 million (S$664 million)

in additional military funding to the Philippines to combat Beijing’s growing assertiveness.

Beijing said in response that “wooing countries from outside the region to provoke confrontation... will only undermine regional stability and aggravate tensions”.

The investment “will only lead to greater insecurity” for Manila, it warned. AFP