A Philippine diplomat yesterday said that any Chinese move to turn a disputed shoal — where the US Navy recently spotted a suspected Chinese survey ship — into an island would escalate the disputes in the South China Sea and asked Washington to convince Beijing not to take that “very provocative” step.
Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia Jr told a news conference in Manila that a senior US Navy official reported spotting a suspected Chinese survey ship in the Scarborough Shoal, which Taiwan also claims, a few weeks ago and expressed concern about its presence in the disputed offshore area.
The Scarborough Shoal is known in Taiwan and China as Huangyan Island (黃岩島).
China has said it has completed construction work to turn seven reefs into islands in the the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), raising alarm in the region and sparking calls by Asian and Western governments for China to stop taking provocative action that might lead to confrontations. Beijing says it has sovereignty over the Spratlys, which Taiwan also claims and has the right to build there.
The US Navy sighting of the survey ship in Scarborough, a rich fishing area about 230km west of the Philippines, has reinforced suspicions that Beijing is eyeing the vast atoll as its next target in its island-making spree, Cuisia said.
“That I think will be very provocative if they will build on Scarborough Shoal,” Cuisia said, adding that such an action “will further escalate the tensions and the conflict.”
The Philippines is incapable of stopping China from constructing an island in the shoal, where Filipino fishermen have been barred by Chinese coast guard ships, Cuisia said.
“We hope that the US and other countries ... would convince China not to proceed with that,” he said.
Washington does not take sides in the disputes involving Taiwan, China, the Philippines and three other governments, but has declared that ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight in the busy waters is in its national interest.
Cuisia said he was involved in a US Department of State-brokered deal for China and the Philippines to withdraw their ships simultaneously from Scarborough to avoid a potential clash during a tense standoff in 2012.
China reneged on that deal by refusing to withdraw its ships after the Philippines did and now claims there was no such deal, he said.
“We were shortchanged,” Cuisia said.
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
RSS