Manila expects China to try to build on a reef off the Philippines’ coast, Philippine Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday, a move he said would be “unacceptable” in the flashpoint waterway.
Lorenzana told reporters that he believed China would eventually reclaim the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), which sits just 230km from the main Philippine island of Luzon.
Beijing has already built up a number of islets and reefs in the South China Sea, installing military facilities on several of them.
Analysts said that similar installations on Scarborough Shoal could give China effective military control over the disputed waterway — something the US has said it is not prepared to accept.
“They encroached,” Lorenzana said of a 2012 confrontation that saw Philippine vessels displaced. “They occupied three islands there, plus they are trying to get Scarborough. So to us that is unacceptable.”
“If we allow them, they will build. That’s very, very disturbing. Very much [more] disturbing than Fiery Cross [Yongshu Reef, 永暑礁], because this is so close to us,” Lorenzana said, referring to one of the Philippine-claimed reefs China has built on.
Taiwan also claims Scarborough Shoal and Fiery Cross Reef.
Because of its position, a military outpost at Scarborough Shoal is seen as the last major physical step required to secure control of the sea.
An outpost at the shoal would also put Chinese fighter jets and missiles within easy striking distance of US forces stationed in the Philippines.
The shoal commands the northeast exit of the sea, so a Chinese military outpost there could stop other countries’ navies from using the vital stretch of water.
A UN-backed tribunal — in a case brought by Manila under then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino III — last year ruled that the so-called “nine-dash-line,” which underpins Beijing’s claim to most of the South China Sea, had no legal basis.
However, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has courted Beijing and backed away from his country’s close relationship with the US.
Lorenzana said Chinese island-reclamation efforts were meant to control the South China Sea.
“That could be their strategy to counter any superpower that would encroach on South China Sea, because they believe South China Sea is — that’s like their lake to them — theirs,” he added.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has indicated it will push back against any Chinese attempt to solidify control of the sea.
During confirmation hearings, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US would block Chinese access to the islands, although analysts have pointed out that this would require a military blockade — an act of war.
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