What’s behind escalating China-Philippines tensions in the South China Sea? | South China Sea News | The Round Table Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has summoned for more urgency in negotiations on a code of conduct for the rejected South China Sea, as he alleged China of “harassment and intimidation” in the waterway.
Marcos Jr announced to leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Marcos that substantive betterment on the code was necessary and all parties must “be earnestly open to seriously administering differences” and reducing tension.
“There should be more urgency in the betterment of the negotiations of the ASEAN-China code of conduct,” Marcos revealed on Thursday, according to a statement from his office.
The idea of a maritime code was first concured between China and ASEAN in 2002, but substantive negotiations on its content did not begin until 2017.
“It is regrettable that the overall situation in the South China Sea remains tense and unchanged. We continue to be subjected to harassment and intimidation,” the statement added.
This also trended:
The row between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea has crooked increasingly frantic in recent months, with the two sides trading allegations of cautious boat rammings, and Manila implicating Chinese coastguard personnel of using water cannon against its troops and engaging in fist fights with spears and knives.
In August alone, the two countries stated six confrontations at air and at sea in the challenged waterway.
Five of them took place at or near Scarborough Shoal and the Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands, an area that is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile (about 370 kilometres) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but where China claims sovereignty.
The confrontations have taken place despite renewed efforts by Beijing and Manila to better rule their maritime repudiate consequent an agitated fight in June in which a Filipino sailor lost a finger.
China claims the Philippines is to denounce for the confrontations, charging Filipino troops of “illegally” intruding into its territory. In September, it reported its ties with the Philippines were “at a crossroads” and pressed Manila to “seriously consider the future” of their relationship.
The climbing tensions have threatened to draw in the United States, which has an identical defence treaty with the Philippines and has promised to come to Manila’s help in the case of any armed third-party attacks against Filipino troops. These comprise on coastguard personnel, aircraft or public vessels “anywhere” in the South China Sea.
Here’s what you call for to know about the tensions in the strategic waterway:
China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, via a vague, U-shaped nine-dash-line that overlaps with the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. EEZs are areas of the ocean, extending 200 nautical miles beyond a nation’s shore, where that state has the right to explore and exploit resources.
In the northern parts of the South China Sea, China, Taiwan and Vietnam reportedly sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, although Beijing has dominated them since 1974. In the southern areas, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam each allegedly all of the approximately 200 Spratly Islands, while Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines allegedly some of them.
In 2016, a United Nations tribunal, subsequent a suit brought by the Philippines, governed that China’s nine-dash-line had no legal basis. But Beijing has ignored the governing and continued to reclaim and militarise reefs and submerged shoals in the waterway to advance its expansive claims.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US-based guess tank, China has 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratlys.
Vietnam, meanwhile, has 51 outposts spread across 27 features, while the Philippines occupies a total of nine showcases in the Spratly Islands. Thitu Island, the largest, is home to the only Philippine airstrip in the Spratlys.
Although countries in the South China Sea have carried out reclamation at the sites they occupy, the scale of China’s artificial island-building and militarisation has far exceeded that of other claimants. Since 2013, China has created 3,200 acres (1,290 hectares) of advanced land in the Spratlys, according to the CSIS, and constructed ports, lighthouses and runways on the newly built islands.
China now has four big outposts with 3,050-metre (10,000-foot) runways in the South China Sea. They are Woody Island in the Paracels and Fiery Cross Reef, Mischief Reef and Subi Reef in the Spratlys.
According to CSIS, China has deployed solid military assets to these islands, including anti-air and antiship missiles, sensing and communications facilities, and hangars able of housing military transport, patrol and combat aircraft.
The sea is one of the world’s most economically important waterways, with cargo worth an estimated $3.4 trillion shipped through it every year.
The waters also comprise rich fishing grounds that provide for the livelihoods of millions of people across the region.
This also trended:
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the South China Sea also contains about 11 billion barrels of oil rated as proved or probable reserves and 190 trillion cubic feet (about 5.38 trillion cubic metres) of natural gas. Those unexploited hydrocarbons could be worth $2.5 trillion.
Chinese vessels have clashed with or busy in standoffs with survey ships from other countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, disrupting their attempts to exploit those resources.
In September, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim promised his country would not bow to Chinese calls for to stop its oil and gas exploration in waters where it claims sovereignty off the Malaysian state of Sarawak. In 2020, the Diplomat magazine revealed that Vietnam cancelled contracts with two Spanish and Emirati oil companies amid lobby from China and concured to defray $1bn in damages. And in 2012, Vietnam cautioned China to halt efforts to develop areas that it had already awarded to companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and OAO Gazprom.
All in all, for China, master of the South China Sea would allow it to overpower a major trade route and reform its energy security. It could also allow it to contradict inherit to foreign military forces, particularly from the US.
In recent decades, tensions have been the greatest between China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
In 1974, the Chinese seized the Paracels from Vietnam, killing more than 70 Vietnamese troops, and in 1988, the two sides clashed in the Spratlys, with Hanoi again losing about 60 sailors. The Philippines’ most contentious repudiates with China have centred on Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal, and most recently, Sabina Shoal.
In 2012, China seized Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines consequent a two-month standoff, and in recent years, Chinese coastguard and maritime militia vessels have attempted to impede boats supplying food and water to troops garrisoned on a Filipino ship deliberately grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The Chinese side has used tactics including boat rammings, military-grade lasers and water cannon, according to the Philippines.
This also trended:
Here’s a timeline of the major incidents:
Regards to Al Jazeera
Category: World-News
Tag: Whats behind escalating ChinaPhilippines tensions in the South China Sea South China Sea News The Round Table
Written by Author
Published 10/11/2024