A Chinese coast guard ship last month maneuvered for days near a research vessel deployed by Taiwanese and Philippine scientists to undertake a crucial survey of undersea fault lines west of the northern Philippines, sparking concerns among the scientists on board, officials said yesterday.
From March 25 to Wednesday last week, the scientists on the R/V Legend proceeded with their research on the Manila Trench, near the northwestern Philippine city of Vigan, despite the presence of the Chinese coast guard ship in the vicinity.
The Chinese coast guard’s proximity sparked concerns because the research vessel was towing a survey cable in the sea, a Philippine scientist said.
Photo: Philippine Coast Guard via AP
The ongoing offshore survey — a joint project of National Central University in Taiwan and the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Geological Sciences — aims to help map offshore faults and other geologic features that could set off earthquakes, tsunamis and other potentially catastrophic hazards in the region.
The research, which ends on Wednesday next week, is partly funded by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology.
The Chinese coast guard ship maneuvered within 2 to 3 nautical miles (3 to 5km) of the R/V Legend for several days, Carla Dimalanta of the National Institute of Geological Sciences said.
“Its proximity to the research vessel was cause for concern, especially when the research vessel was towing a streamer cable for the scientific measurements that were being done,” Dimalanta said in an e-mail.
She did not say whether the Chinese coast guard ship warned the research vessel that it had illegally entered Chinese territorial waters and should immediately move away
The Chinese coast guard has often issued this radio warning to foreign ships and vessels cruising near its outposts in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.
For decades, Taiwan, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have been locked in an increasingly tense territorial standoff in the South China Sea.
The Manila Trench, which runs off the western coast of the main northern Philippine island of Luzon on the edge of the South China Sea has long been an area of concern because of the potential disaster it could unleash if a major earthquake and tsunami were generated in the busy waterway that borders several countries, including Taiwan, China and the Philippines.
Two officers said on condition of anonymity that the Philippine military was aware that the Chinese coast guard had been tracking the research vessel.
There was no immediate comment from Chinese embassy officials in Manila.
Late last month, the Philippine coast guard said that Chinese coast guard ships maneuvered dangerously close to its patrol ships at least four times in the vicinity of the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) off the northwestern Philippines over the past year.
The movement of the Chinese coast guard ships increased the risk of collision and contravened international safety regulations, the Philippine coast guard said at the time.
In one of those dangerous movements, a Chinese coast guard ship moved just 20m from a Philippine coast guard vessel and restricted its maneuvering space in the vicinity of the Scarborough Shoal in a “clear violation” of a 1972 international safety regulation that aims to prevent sea collisions, said the Philippine coast guard, which reported the incident to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
China’s seizure of Scarborough Shoal prompted the Philippines to bring the dispute to international arbitration.
In 2016, a UN-backed tribunal invalidated most of China’s claims and said it has contravened the rights of Filipinos to fish at the shoal.
China dismissed the ruling as a sham and continues to defy it, but has allowed Philippine fishers to return to the shoal under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, which has nurtured closer ties with Beijing.
Despite the two countries’ closer relations, sporadic territorial spats have persisted.
Two weeks ago, US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Aquilino told reporters on board a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft that China has fully militarized three of the seven islands that it built in the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and military aircraft in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating in the disputed waters.
China said that its deployment of “necessary national defense facilities on its own territory is a right entitled to every sovereign country and is in line with international law, which is beyond reproach.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS