MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine defense chief condemned China’s deployment of a swarm of armed coast guard forces, backed by a helicopter and a drone, closer to the Philippines’ military outpost in a fiercely disputed atoll in the South China Sea. Its military also vowed to defend the offshore territory, the scene of repeated, tense faceoffs.
The latest flare-up in the long-seething territorial disputes around the Second Thomas Shoal came up in closed-door talks between Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and his visiting Australian counterpart, Richard Marles.
Philippine military chief Gen. Romero Brawner Jr. said Marles renewed Australia’s commitment to help defend the rule of law in a region “experiencing the pressure that the rules-based order is being placed under.”
China’s actions and its “nebulous” territorial claims in the disputed waters “are a matter not only of concern, but of condemnation because these are gross violations of international law,” Teodoro said in a joint news conference with Marles, when asked about the latest Chinese actions. “We need to stand up to this,” he added.
“We work really closely with the Philippines in terms of asserting the rules-based order in the South China Sea,” Marles added. “That’s really important for us to jointly do. We understand that in that work, there will be an interaction between defense forces.”
New Faceoff at Second Thomas Shoal
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on a Philippine military report that Beijing has deployed several coast guard and suspected militia ships, along with a swarm of speedboats, some fitted with high-caliber machine guns, and backed by a helicopter and a drone. The deployment is reportedly close to a Philippine warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has served as Manila's territorial outpost in Second Thomas.
A Chinese boat came as close as 50 meters (164 feet) to the Sierra Madre, and two boatloads of Filipino forces were deployed from the ship to prevent the Chinese from coming closer, Philippine military officials said.
The Philippine navy deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre in 1999 at the shoal — now a rust-encrusted seacraft slightly tilting in the shallows — to serve as its territorial outpost, where China has deployed ships to keep a continuous watch.
The bigger deployment of Chinese coast guard and other forces at the shoal started Wednesday and Brawner said Beijing's forces were still in the vicinity of the shoal Friday.
“The situation is tense because they’re trying to get closer but our troops we continue to push them outward,” Brawner told reporters after joining the talks between Marles and Teodoro.
China Claims ‘Staged Provocation’
In reaction to the latest flare-ups, China’s coast guard issued a statement Friday urging the Philippines to “immediately stop all infringement activities, provocations and false accusations,” and “vowing to carry out law enforcement activities” in the waters around the disputed shoal.
It also released a video of what it said was the Philippines’ latest “staged provocation,” with Philippines boats approaching its vessels in an “unprofessional and dangerous manner.”
The video showed two small boats approaching a Chinese vessel, with one person on the Philippine boat “holding what appeared to be a camera” it said, adding that the other boat “kept some distance.”
The spokesperson made no mention of China’s new deployments in the area or address a collision last week between two Chinese ships in another incident.
Australian Support
Marles is visiting the Philippines as Australian forces engage in their largest combat exercises with the Philippine military, involving more than 3,600 military personnel in live-fire drills and battle maneuvers. Marles has been invited to witness a mock amphibious beach assault by Australian and Filipino naval forces over the weekend in a western Philippine town facing the South China Sea, Philippine military officials said.
After their meeting, Marles and Teodoro signed a joint letter of intent to further boost defense cooperation and affirm “their resolve to enhance interoperability, collective deterrence and long-term military readiness ... to promote regional security and stability," according to Philippine defense officials.
The exercises called Alon — Tagalog for wave — will showcase Australia’s growing firepower. The drills will involve an Australian guided-missile navy destroyer, F/A-18 supersonic fighter jets, a C-130 troop and cargo aircraft, Javelin anti-tank weapons and special forces sniper weapons.
China has raised alarm over such combat exercises in or near the disputed waters, which it claims almost in its entirety, but where the United States and its treaty allies, Australia and the Philippines, have staged joint naval patrols and drills with other countries to boost deterrence against threats to freedom of navigation and overflight.
China’s military have separately confronted U.S., Australian and Philippine ships and aircraft in alarmingly close calls to assert what Beijing calls its sovereignty and sovereign rights in the strategic waterway, a key global trade route, sparking fear of a larger conflict that may involve American forces and their allies in what has long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint.
Incident at Scarborough Shoal
The new faceoff in the Second Thomas Shoal came after an accidental collision between Chinese ships Aug. 11 in another disputed fishing atoll, the Scarborough Shoal. The Chinese navy and coast guard ships that collided were trying to block a Philippine coast guard ship from sailing closer to the shoal.
The collision smashed the Chinese coast guard ship’s bow area and may have seriously injured or thrown overboard a number of Chinese personnel seen standing on the deck shortly before the crash, Philippine officials said, based on coast guard video. Chinese officials have refused to comment on the collision.
Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila, and Chris Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.
