China Sends Military to Disputed Territory to Warn US Ally

The Chinese military said Wednesday it had patrolled at Scarborough Shoal, a disputed South China Sea reef within the Philippines' maritime zone.

The air and naval forces patrolled "the territorial waters and airspace of China's Huangyan Island and surrounding areas," the Southern Theater Command said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc.

"This is a patrol and vigilance activity carried out by the troops in the theater in accordance with the law," the statement added.

Scarborough Shoal lies about 140 miles west of the Philippines' Luzon Island and nearly 700 miles from China's Hainan province. Rich in fishing grounds, the reef came under effective Chinese control following a 2012 standoff that started when the U.S. ally tried to arrest Chinese fishermen.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro accused Beijing of bullying its neighbor into ceding more ground.

A Chinese fighter jet takes off during a joint exercise between Chinese aircraft carriers the Liaoning and Shandong in the South China Sea in late October. China's Southern Theater Command said Wednesday it had conducted... People's Liberation Army

"What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area because of our need to explore and exploit the resources in these areas for the benefit of our own people," Teodoro said at a press conference alongside his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles.

Tensions between China and the U.S. ally have intensified as Philippine efforts to access a number of features in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) have been met with growing Chinese resistance.

Since early 2023, Chinese coast guard and maritime forces have deployed water cannons, conducted ramming maneuvers and pointed lasers at Philippine vessels, with a handful of clashes leaving Philippine personnel injured.

An EEZ is an area within which a country claims sole rights to exploit resources found in the waters.

On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Philippines bore responsibility for "every escalation" in recent confrontations between the two countries.

Newsweek reached out via email to the ministry for comment.

"It's the Filipino restraint that has ensured calm all this while. And this calm remains tenuous at best because of Beijing's continued coercive behavior," Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in response.

The Philippines has taken legal and legislative measures to assert its maritime rights.

Last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed two laws establishing clear boundaries for Philippine maritime zones and specifying permissible air and sea routes for foreign vessels.

The U.S. State Department voiced support for the new laws and called on other countries to align their maritime claims with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Marcos has pledged not to cede "one inch" of Philippine territory to China.

In a marked shift from his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos has pushed back against China's expanding and increasingly muscular presence. Last week, the Philippines announced it would acquire 40 fast patrol boats from France to bolster the coast guard.

Aiming to substantiate its claims, China announced new baselines for Scarborough Shoal on Sunday, asserting its right to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea around the reef.

Beijing condemned the Philippines' new maritime legislation as a violation of Chinese sovereignty and said it was intended to bolster an "illegal" 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

That tribunal ruled in favor of Manila's claims, invalidating China's extensive claims in the South China Sea, symbolized by the "nine-dash line." China did not participate in the proceedings.