PHL concerned over reported SCS land-reclamation activity by China
THE Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has expressed concern over China’s latest reported reclamation activities in some unoccupied features in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea (SCS).
Bloomberg reported Tuesday night that China is constructing on several unoccupied land features in the contested waters, citing warnings from Western officials that these latest activities indicate an “attempt to advance a new status quo, even though it’s too early to know whether China would seek to militarize them.”
Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said the DFA is checking the veracity of the report with relevant Philippine government agencies.
“The department takes note of the Bloomberg article on reported reclamation activities by China in unoccupied features of the Spratlys. We are seriously concerned as such activities contravene the Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea’s [DOC] undertaking on self-restraint and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” she said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “We have asked relevant Philippine agencies to verify and validate the contents of this report.”
The DOC, signed by China and the 10 Asean member-nations in 2002, explicitly states that all parties would exercise self-restraint from conducting activities that complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability, including “refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features” in the SCS.
China and the 10-member bloc are negotiating a code of conduct, which builds upon and would serve as the upgraded version of the nonbinding DOC.
In a separate statement, the Chinese Embassy in Manila tacitly denied the allegation and tagged the Bloomberg report as “fake news.”
China is building up several unoccupied land features in the SCS, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade.
While China has previously built out disputed reefs, islands and land formations in the area that it had long controlled—and militarized them with ports, runways and other infrastructure—the officials presented images of what they called the first known instances of a nation doing so on territory it doesn’t already occupy. They warned that Beijing’s latest construction activity indicates an attempt to advance a new status quo, even though it’s too early to know whether China would seek to militarize them.
Fishing fleets that operate as de facto maritime militias under the control of authorities in Beijing have carried out construction activities at four unoccupied features in the Spratly Islands over the past decade, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive information. Some sand bars and other formations in the area expanded more than 10 times in size in recent years, they said.
The officials said new land formations have appeared above water over the past year at Eldad Reef in the northern Spratlys, with images showing large holes, debris piles and excavator tracks at a site that used to be only partially exposed at high tide. A 2014 photo of the reef, previously reported to have been taken by the Philippine military, had depicted what the officials said was a Chinese maritime vessel offloading an amphibious hydraulic excavator used in land reclamation projects.
They said similar activities have also taken place at Lankiam Cay, known as Panata Island in the Philippines, where a feature had been reinforced with a new perimeter wall over the course of just a couple of months last year. Other images they presented showed physical changes at both Whitsun Reef and Sandy Cay, where previously submerged features now sit permanently above the high-tide line.
Tensions between China and other claimants in the South China Sea—the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei—have been rising for years as Beijing invested more in naval and coast guard ships to enforce its claims.
The Spratly Islands, historically tiny and uninhabited, have taken on greater geopolitical significance given they straddle one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and could have military significance, particularly if tensions over Taiwan trigger a regional war.