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Why China Keeps Antagonizing Others in the South China Sea

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A Chinese coast guard vessel fired a water cannon at a Philippine ship over the weekend. It isn't the first time and likely won't be the last.

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Countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has grown in recent years.
In particular, China's sweeping claims - which include sovereignty claims over land parcels and their adjacent waters - have angered competing claimants like Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The other countries have staked claims on islands and various zones in the sea, such as the Paracels and the Spratlys.

China has backed its expansive claims with island-building and naval patrols. The US says it does not take sides in territorial disputes, but has sent military ships and planes near disputed islands in what it calls "freedom of navigation" operations.

Japan, which has no direct stake in the South China Sea, also provides ships and military equipment to claimants like Vietnam and the Philippines.

There are fears that the area is becoming a flashpoint, with potentially serious global consequences.

Why are countries interested in these waters?

The South China Sea is a major shipping route. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that over 21% of global trade, amounting to $3.37 trillion, transited through these waters in 2016.

It is also home to rich fishing grounds that provide for the livelihoods of millions of people across the region. More than half of the world's fishing vessels operate in this area.

Although largely uninhabited, the Paracels and the Spratlys may have reserves of natural resources around them. There has been little detailed exploration of the area, so estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral wealth of neighbouring areas.

The nine-dash line and other claims

China claims by far the largest portion of territory in an area demarcated by its so-called "nine-dash line". The line comprises nine dashes which extends hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan.

In 1947, China issued a map detailing its claims, and insists history backs up its claims - Beijing says its right to the area goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation.

These claims are mirrored by Taiwan.

However, critics say China has not been specific about what exactly its claim includes, and that the nine-dash line that appears on Chinese maps encompassing almost the entirety of the South China Sea includes no coordinates.

It is also not clear whether China claims only land territory within the nine-dash line, or all the maritime space within it as well.

Vietnam hotly disputes China's historical account, saying China had never claimed sovereignty over the islands before the 1940s. Vietnam says it has actively ruled over both the Paracels and the Spratlys since the 17th Century - and has the documents to prove it.

The other major claimant to the area is the Philippines, which invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping.

Both the Philippines and China also lay claim to the Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China) - a little more than 100 miles (160km) from the Philippines and 500 miles from China.

Malaysia and Brunei also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea that they say falls within their economic exclusion zones, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS.

Brunei does not claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia claims a small number of islands in the Spratlys.

Serious clashes

The most serious trouble in recent decades has flared between Vietnam and China, and there have also been stand-offs between the Philippines and China. Some of the incidents include:

In 1974, the Chinese seized the Paracels from Vietnam, killing more than 70 Vietnamese troops.

In 1988, the two sides clashed in the Spratlys, with Vietnam again coming off worse, losing about 60 sailors.

In early 2012, China and the Philippines engaged in a lengthy maritime stand-off, accusing each other of intrusions in the Scarborough Shoal.

Unverified claims that the Chinese navy sabotaged two Vietnamese exploration operations in late 2012 led to large anti-China protests on Vietnam's streets.

In January 2013, Manila said it was taking China to a UN tribunal under the auspices of the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, to challenge its claims.

In May 2014, the introduction by China of a drilling rig into waters near the Paracel Islands led to multiple collisions between Vietnamese and Chinese ships.

In June 2019, Manila accused a Chinese trawler of ramming a Filipino fishing boat with 22 people on board. The Filipinos were rescued by the Vietnamese.

In early 2023, the Philippines said Chinese vessels have been shining lasers at Filipino boats to temporarily blind their crew. They also accuse the Chinese of dangerous manoeuvres by sailing too close or blocking the Filipinos' path.

Hollywood: Caught in the controversy

Claimant countries have been banning films depicting contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Most recently, Vietnam banned the upcoming Barbie film - due for release in July 2023 - over its portrayal of a map that includes the nine-dash line. Senators in the Philippines also criticised the map's inclusion in the movie. It should come with "an explicit disclaimer that the nine-dash line is a figment of China's imagination", according to one lawmaker.

Korean pop super group Blackpink also came under fire in Vietnam in July 2023 after their concert promoter's website featured a map with Beijing's nine-dash line.

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In 2019, DreamWorks' animated children's movie Abominable also incurred the ire of several South East Asian countries. Vietnam pulled the film, Malaysia cut the scene depicting the map, while the Philippines called for a DreamWorks boycott. Abominable is the first co-production between the US company and China's Pearl Studio production firm.

In 2018, Vietnamese censors cut a second-long clip in Crazy Rich Asians featuring a designer bag with a world map that showed the disputed area under Beijing's control.

Have they tried to reach a resolution?

China prefers bilateral negotiations with the other parties. But many of its neighbours argue that China's relative size and clout give it an unfair advantage.

Some countries have argued that China should negotiate with Asean (the Association of South East Asian Nations), a 10-member regional grouping that consists of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

However, China is opposed to this, while Asean is also divided over how to resolve the dispute.

The Philippines has sought international arbitration instead. In 2013, it announced it would take China to an arbitration tribunal under the auspices of the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, to challenge its claims.

In July 2016, the tribunal backed the Philippines' case, saying China had violated the Philippines' sovereign rights.

China had boycotted the proceedings and called the ruling "ill-founded". It says it will not be bound by it.

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Overlapping claims in the South China Sea threaten to turn the region into a flashpoint of global concern.

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ABOARD BRP MALABRIGO (AP) - A Chinese coast guard ship blocked a Philippine patrol vessel steaming into a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, causing a frightening near-collision in the latest act of Beijing's aggression in the strategic waterway.

The high seas face-off April 23 between the larger Chinese ship and the Philippine coast guard's BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal was among the tense moments it and another Philippine vessel encountered in a weeklong sovereignty patrol in one of the world's most hotly contested waterways.

The Philippine coast guard had invited a small group of journalists, including three from The Associated Press, to join the 1,670-kilometer (1,038-mile) patrol for the first time as part of a new Philippine strategy aimed at exposing China's increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea, where an estimated $5 trillion in global trade transits each year.

In scorching summer heat but relatively calm waters, the Malapascua and another Philippine coast guard vessel, the BRP Malabrigo, journeyed to the frontlines of the long-seething territorial conflicts. They cruised past a string of widely scattered Philippine-occupied and claimed islands, islets and reefs looking for signs of encroachment, illegal fishing and other threats.

In areas occupied or controlled by China, the Philippine patrol vessels received radio warnings in Chinese and halting English, ordering them to immediately leave what the Chinese coast guard and navy radio callers claimed were Beijing's "undisputable territories" and issuing unspecified threats for defiance.

Hostilities peaked that Sunday morning in the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly archipelago, the most fiercely contested region in the busy sea channel.

As the two patrol vessels approached the shoal's shallow turquoise waters for an underwater survey, the Chinese coast guard repeatedly warned them by radio to leave the area, which is about 194 kilometers (121 miles) west of the Philippine island province of Palawan.

After several radio exchanges, a Chinese coast guard caller, sounding agitated, warned of unspecified adversarial action.

"Since you have disregarded our warning, we will take further necessary measures on you in accordance with the laws and any consequences entailed will be borne by you," the Chinese speaker said.

A Chinese coast guard ship rapidly approached and shadowed the smaller Malapascua and the Malabrigo. When the Malapascua maneuvered toward the mouth of the shoal, the Chinese ship suddenly shifted to block it, coming as close as 36 to 46 meters (120 to 150 feet) from its bow, said Malapascua's skipper, Capt. Rodel Hernandez.

To avoid a collision, Hernandez abruptly reversed his vessel's direction then shut off its engine to bring the boat to a full stop.

Filipino personnel aboard the vessels - and journalists, who captured the tense moment on camera - watched in frightened silence. But the Malapascua steered just in time to avoid a potential disaster.

Hernandez later told journalists that the "sudden and really very dangerous maneuver" by the Chinese coast guard ship had disregarded international rules on collision avoidance. He had the Philippine vessels leave the area after the encounter for the safety of the ships and personnel.

Earlier, a huge Chinese navy ship shadowed the two Philippine patrol vessels in the dark of night as they cruised near Subi, one of seven barren reefs China has transformed in the last decade into a missile-protected island base. The Chinese navy ship radioed the Philippine vessels "to immediately leave and keep out."

The coast guard radioed back to assert Philippine sovereign rights to the area before steaming away.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its small contingent of naval forces and tow away the actively commissioned but crumbling BRP Sierra Madre. The navy ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manila's territorial claim to the atoll.

Chinese ships often block navy vessels delivering food and other supplies to the Filipino sailors on the ship, including just a few days earlier, Hernandez said.

As hostilities between Chinese coast guard and navy ships and the Philippine patrol vessels were unfolding, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was in Manila, where he held talks with his Philippine counterpart and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday. China was willing to work with the Philippines to resolve differences and deepen ties, Qin said.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment on the encounters.

In another Philippine-claimed reef called Whitsun, the Philippine patrol vessels spotted more than 100 suspected Chinese militia ships arrayed side by side in several clusters in the shallows. China says the huge trawler-like ships are fishing vessels, but Manila's coast guard suspects they are being used for surveillance or to hold the reef for future development.

Filipino coast guard personnel aboard two motor boats approached the Chinese ships and ordered them through a loudspeaker to leave, but none did.

Philippine officials required participating journalists to not immediately release information about the trip to ensure the safety of the mission and to give the coast guard time to brief defense, justice and foreign affairs officials in charge of handling the touchy territorial conflicts.

Faced with a militarily far-superior China in the disputed waters, the Philippines launched the campaign early this year to expose the Asian superpower's aggression, hoping public awareness and criticism will force Beijing to abide by international law.

Philippines coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said the strategy was working. He noted the Chinese ambassador in Manila was prompted to hold a news conference to explain Beijing's side amid outrage over a publicly released video that showed a Chinese coast guard ship aiming a military-grade laser in early February that temporarily blinded two crewmembers of the Malapascua off Second Thomas Shoal.

"We are David," Tarriela said, likening the Philippines to the underdog hero of the Biblical story. "We believe that through the publication of all these aggressive actions of China, we would find friends who would criticize Goliath."

The territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has deployed its warships and fighter jets for patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says is in America's national interest.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Saturday called media reporting on the encounters a "stark reminder" of Chinese "harassment and intimidation of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within their exclusive economic zone. We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct."

Beijing has criticized a recent agreement by the Philippines and the U.S. to grant American forces access to additional Filipino military camps. China fears the access will provide Washington with military staging grounds and surveillance outposts in the northern Philippines across the sea from Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, and in provinces facing the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

Miller reaffirmed Washington's repeated warnings that it would help defend the Philippines - its oldest treaty ally in Asia - if Philippine forces, ships or aircraft are attacked in the South China Sea.

With multiple conflicts looming in what appears to be a placid expanse of sea, where dolphins and starlit night skies send seafarers grabbing their cameras, Malabrigo's skipper Julio Colarina III said he would always strive to stay on the right side of a geopolitical minefield.

"As much as possible we'll avoid conflict in the area," he said. "All these competing interests just need one spark." ___

Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.

___

Find more of AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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Tense face-off: Philippines confronts China over sea claims

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A Chinese coast guard ship blocked a Philippine patrol vessel steaming into a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, causing a frightening near-collision in the latest act of Beijing's aggression in the strategic waterway.