The China Coast Guard has seized control of a disputed reef near a major Philippine military outpost in the South China Sea, Beijing’s state media said, adding to longstanding territorial tensions with Manila.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions from other countries as well as an international ruling that its position has no legal basis.
China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, and Manila is taking part in sweeping joint military drills with the US which Beijing has slammed as destabilizing.
Photo: AFP/PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD/BUREAU OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC RESOURCES (PCG/BFAR)
The Chinese coast guard “implemented maritime control” over the Tiexian Reef (鐵線礁), also known as Sandy Cay Reef, during the middle of April, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.
The tiny sandbank, part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), near Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島), also called Pagasa and the site of a Philippine military facility.
CCTV said the coast guard landed on the reef to “exercise sovereignty and jurisdiction,” carry out an “inspection” and “collect video evidence regarding the illegal activities of the Philippine side.”
The broadcaster published a photograph of five black-clad people standing on the uninhabited reef as a dark inflatable boat bobbed in the nearby water.
Another showed four coast guard officials posing with a Chinese flag on the reef’s white surface, in what CCTV described as a “vow of sovereignty.”
The Financial Times quoted an unnamed Philippine maritime official as saying that the China Coast Guard left after unfurling the flag.
There do not appear to be any signs that China has permanently occupied the reef or has built a structure on it.
Philippine forces are present on Thitu Island and Manila inaugurated a coast guard monitoring base there in 2023 to counter what it describes as Chinese aggression.
On Monday last week, the Philippine and US militaries launched three weeks of annual joint exercises called “Balikatan,” or “shoulder to shoulder,” which would include an integrated air and missile defense simulation for the first time.
Beijing said the maneuvers “undermine regional strategic stability” and accused Manila of “collusion with countries outside the region.”
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