Chinese naval and air forces conducted patrols around a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea yesterday, after a slew of tense encounters with the Philippines over the past few months.
The patrols coincided with joint exercises carried out by the US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines in Manila’s exclusive economic zone and within the South China Sea.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several countries, including Taiwan and the Philippines, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Photo: Reuters
Its claims include the waters around Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) — which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 — where the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command yesterday said it held air and sea patrols.
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks is 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and about 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Beijing said the training activities around the shoal included “reconnaissance, early warning, and air-sea patrols.”
“Certain countries outside the region are stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, creating instability in the region,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
“China holds indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its adjacent waters,” it added.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense in a statement said that a joint drill involving the five countries took place in the South China Sea.
Its maritime destroyer Sazanami participated in the exercises, the ministry said.
The US said the maritime exercises conducted with its allies demonstrated “a collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The Australian Department of Defence said that the HMAS Sydney and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft were participating in exercises aimed at “upholding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight.”
Tensions between China and the Philippines have flared in the past few months during a series of confrontations in the waters around the contested Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) and Sabina Shoal (Xianbin, 仙濱暗沙).
In July, the two sides said they had reached a provisional deal on resupply missions to a Philippine ship, the Sierra Madre, which is grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal with a garrison on board, aimed at asserting Manila’s claims to the reef.
Beijing on Friday said it had “supervised” a Philippine ship as it delivered supplies as part of a resupply mission to the grounded vessel at the shoal.
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