The Philippines yesterday accused China of violating an informal code of conduct in the South China Sea by planning new structures on a disputed shoal, as China’s premier told Southeast Asian leaders that Beijing was serious about peace.
Friction over the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important waterways, has surged as China uses its growing naval might to assert its vast claims over the oil and gas-rich sea more forcefully, raising fears of a military clash.
Four of ASEAN’s 10 members have overlapping claims with China, including the Philippines.
Photo: AFP / Philippine Department of National Defense
Beijing and Manila accuse each other of violating the Declaration of Conduct (DoC), which is a non-binding confidence-building agreement on maritime conduct signed by China and ASEAN in 2002.
Philippines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told a congressional budget hearing in Manila that China had violated the DoC by getting ready to build new structures on the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島).
“We have ... sighted concrete blocks inside the shoal which are a prelude to construction,” Gazmin said, displaying air surveillance photographs of the rocks.
He said the photos were taken on Saturday last week, describing them as a worrying pattern of construction that would be similar to the building of a garrison on Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef, 美濟礁) in the late 1990s.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said he had “no information” about Gazmin’s accusations.
Regional security expert Ian Storey said that if Gazmin was correct, it would mark the biggest violation yet of the 2002 declaration.
“If China starts building at Scarborough, then it is an occupation and, I believe, the most egregious violation yet of the 2002 declaration,” said Storey, who is based at Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies. “It is a very significant development indeed and one that will certainly add to tensions.”
Speaking at a China-ASEAN trade fair in Nanning, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said his country was serious about wanting a peaceful resolution to the South China Sea disputes, though signaled it was in no rush to sign a long-mooted accord to replace the DoC.
After years of resisting efforts by ASEAN to start talks on an agreement on maritime rules governing behavior in the region, the so-called Code of Conduct, China has said it would host talks between senior officials this month.
Li said China had always advocated talks on the South China Sea on the basis of “respecting historical reality and international law.”
“The Chinese government is willing and ready to assume a policy of seeking an appropriate resolution through friendly consultations,” Li told the audience.
China would “proceed systematically and soundly push forward talks on the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea,” Li said without elaborating in comments aired live on state television.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese