The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.
“Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement.
Photo: Philippine Coast Guard / AFP
He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area to challenge the “unlawful” Chinese patrols, to ensure “that this bullying behavior does not succeed.”
The China Coast Guard deployed three vessels from its Guangdong and Hainan bases to Philippine waters between Dec. 30 and Saturday, Tarriela said.
On Saturday, he said a huge Chinese coast guard ship widely known as the “Monster” had returned to its exclusive economic zone, prompting its own coast guard vessel to approach and issue a radio challenge.
The Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Teresa Magbanua approached the 12,000-tonne Chinese patrol ship’s “starboard side at close range, effectively hindering the China Coast Guard vessel’s attempts to move” toward the coastline of the western province of Zambales, Tarriela wrote on social media.
The “Monster” replaced another vessel, CCG 3304, in the area, he said.
The Philippine Coast Guard “has consistently communicated over the radio, reminding the Chinese crew that they are unlawfully operating within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and do not possess any legal authority to conduct maritime patrols,” he said.
It is at least the second time this month that the Philippines has challenged the China Coast Guard vessel CCG 5901. Bigger than a US Navy destroyer, the vessel is armed with anti-aircraft guns and fuel storage capacities that allow it to undertake extended missions.
Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that went against it.
Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also have claims to the waters.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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