Satellite images of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in the South China Sea show a new floating barrier across its entrance, near where Philippine ships and Chinese coast guard vessels have had frequent run-ins.
One of the images taken by Maxar Technologies on Thursday last week and viewed by Reuters showed the barrier blocking the mouth of the shoal, where the Chinese coast guard last week claimed to have driven off a Philippine vessel “illegally intruding” into Beijing’s waters.
Manila, which last week deployed a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel to patrol the shoal and transport fuel to Filipino fishers in the area, said that China’s claims were “inaccurate” and that Manila’s activities there were lawful.
Photo: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
China claims the Scarborough Shoal, although it is inside the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone. An international arbitration tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2016 said that China’s claims had no legal basis — a decision Beijing has rejected.
That makes the atoll one of Asia’s most contested maritime features, and a flashpoint for diplomatic flare-ups over sovereignty and fishing rights.
The satellite image bolsters a report and video distributed by the Philippine Coast Guard on Sunday showing two Chinese coast guard inflatable boats deploying floating barriers at the shoal’s entrance on Thursday last week.
It said that a Chinese coast guard ship shadowed the BFAR vessel, conducted blocking maneuvers about 1.3 nautical miles off the shoal, and closely approached it.
“We can assume that [the barrier] is intended for Philippine government vessels because they install it every time they monitor our presence within the BDM vicinity,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said, referring to Bajo de Masinloc, Manila’s name for the shoal.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said that Huangyan Island, China’s name for the shoal, was “China’s inherent territory.”
“Recently, the Philippine side has taken a series of actions to violate China’s sovereignty” in the shoal’s waters, she said. “China has to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty, and maritime rights and interests.”
Another satellite image showed what Maxar Technologies described as “possible Chinese interception of a BFAR vessel” at the shoal.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its territorial claims overlap with those of Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
“What we are seeing at the Scarborough Shoal now is likely the beginning of Beijing’s pushback against Manila’s pushback,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
Since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in June 2022, the Philippines has challenged China’s presence at the shoal and its attempts to stop the resupply of Filipino troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), he said.
“China’s attempts to prevent Filipino fishermen from fishing at Scarborough Shoal is absolutely illegal,” Storey said. “The 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling gave fishermen from both countries the right to [fish there]. Manila is merely supporting the legitimate rights of Filipino fishermen.”
The shoal is coveted for its bountiful fish stocks and a stunning turquoise lagoon that provides a safe haven for vessels during storms.
The Chinese removed the barrier a few hours after the BFAR vessel left, Tarriela said.
It was not clear from the photographs how robust the barrier was and whether it would have posed an obstacle to larger warships.
In an article on Sunday, China’s Global Times said that “the Philippines has abused and unilaterally sabotaged the foundation of Beijing’s goodwill to Manila” that allowed Filipino fishers to operate nearby, by working against China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.
“If such provocations persist, China could be forced to take more effective measures to control the situation,” the article said, citing experts.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
RSS