Concern grows over China's 'maritime militia'

Concern grows over China's 'maritime militia'

Beijing brushes off Manila's complaints about 200 vessels in contested area

Chinese vessels are moored in the waters surrounding the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea on March 23 (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via South China Morning Post)
Chinese vessels are moored in the waters surrounding the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea on March 23 (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via South China Morning Post)

A disagreement between China and the Philippines over the presence of 200-plus Chinese vessels at a disputed South China Sea reef has sparked concerns that Beijing is upping efforts to control the contested waters.

Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has demanded the vessels leave Whitsun Reef, located in a shallow coral region in the Spratly Islands, about 320 kilometres (175 nautical miles) west of Palawan, in the Philippines.

Manila has threatened to deploy additional navy ships to counter what it called an “incursion” and “militarising the area” by vessels that Lorenzana classed as “maritime militia”. Beijing insists they are fishing boats sheltering from rough seas.

Collin Koh, a research fellow from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said he suspected the vessels were not only fishing boats, and they represented a challenge to Manila.

“It’s by now an open secret that the Chinese authorities are in the midst of enhancing their maritime militia, especially its ability to fish and fight,” Koh said. “The fishers are expected, even when engaged in fishery production work, to perform their patriotic duty as maritime militiamen.

“There’s a possibility that this boat swarm could be designed to test Philippine resolve and action, and by extension, those of the Americans. Will the Filipinos take action, and what consequences will there be?” (Story continues below)

(Map by South China Morning Post)

Beijing has attracted accusations of militarising the region and posing a threat to other South China Sea claimants by building artificial islands in the waters and its deployment of fishing, coastguard and military vessels.

China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan all have claims over the entire Union Banks, which includes Whitsun Reef.

“Having a hypothetical outpost on Whitsun Reef would appear advantageous in terms of enhancing physical control,” Koh said, noting the considerable distance between Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef, the two largest artificial and militarised islands China has built in the Spratly chain.

“An additional outpost between them — about halfway between — could be useful. If it were located closer than Mischief Reef is to the energy-rich Reed Bank, a resource-based motive would have been clearer.”

But Hu Bo, director of that Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, which monitors fishing activities in the region, said the total of “more than 200” probably included repeated counts, because there were not that many boats on March 7 or the following days, and some boats entered and exited the area several times over these days.

“Also, I don’t see the purpose of sending hundreds of militia boats there,” Hu said, adding that this incident seemed similar to one that flared up two years ago and would probably fizzle out like that one did.

In 2019, Manila lodged a diplomatic protest over the presence of Chinese fishing boats near the disputed Thitu Island (known in the Philippines as Pagasa), a Philippine-occupied island in the Spratlys.

The United States said on Tuesday it was backing the Philippines in its latest maritime feud with Beijing, and accused China of using “maritime militia to intimidate, provoke and threaten other nations, which undermines peace and security in the region”.

Chen Xiangmiao, an associate researcher with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said Manila would this time probably come under domestic pressure to take a much harder line with Beijing over the South China Sea.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is prevented by the constitution from seeking re-election next year, has largely avoided confronting China, but may need to alter that stance to help his preferred successor win an election against opponents advocating a more nationalistic line.

“I think it is quite obvious that there are complex considerations in Philippine domestic politics about this issue, one of which is to set the political agenda for Duterte and set obstacles to Sino-Philippine relations,” Chen said.

“It is in the interests of some factions within the Philippines as well as their ally the United States.”

People’s Liberation Army Navy soldiers patrol Woody Island, in the Paracels Archipelago, in 2019. (Reuters File Photo)

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