US carrier group patrols South China Sea

WASHINGTON – A United States aircraft carrier strike group has begun patrols in the South China Sea amid growing tension with China over control of the disputed waterway and concerns it could become a flashpoint under the new US administration.

China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday warned Washington against challenging its sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Foreign ministers of the Associaton of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Boracay began yesterday top-level discussions on a code of conduct framework that regional leaders hope to finish this year to help deescalate tensions in the disputed sea.

The framework has been in the works for years since China and ASEAN agreed in a 2002 declaration to “undertake self- restraint” and “refrain” from occupying islands and other features in the disputed areas.

“There’s still a long way to go but ASEAN is really working hard to have this code of conduct concluded very soon,” foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose told reporters.

The US Navy said the force, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS

Carl Vinson, began routine operations in the South China Sea on Saturday. The announcement was posted on the

Vinson’s Facebook page. The strike group’s commander, Rear Admiral James Kilby, said that weeks of training in the Pacific had improved the group’s effectiveness and readiness.

“We are looking forward to demonstrating those capabilities while building upon existing strong relationships with our allies, partners and friends in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region,” he was quoted as saying by the Navy News Service.

Friction between the US and China over trade and territory under President Donald Trump have increased concerns that the South China Sea could become a flashpoint.

China wrapped up its own naval exercises in the South China Sea on Friday. War games involving its own aircraft carrier have unnerved neighbors with which it has long-running territorial disputes.

China lays claim to almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the waters that command strategic sea lanes and have rich fishing grounds, along with oil and gas deposits.

The US has criticized Beijing’s construction of man-made islands and build-up of military facilities in the sea, and expressed concern they could be used to restrict free movement.

Phl ‘lost its victory’

Murray Hiebert, senior adviser of the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the Philippines lost its victory in the arbitral tribunal that found China’s “nine-dash line” historical claim “illegal” when the government put the issue on the back burner.

Hiebert, also the deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program at the CSIS, said raising the South China Sea ruling and mentioning the favorable decision more often could give the Philippines “stronger cards in the hands to play.”

“You pretty much lost what you won in the tribunal. The Chinese just put that in their pocket,” Hiebert told Filipino journalists during a discussion on Philippines-US relations at the CSIS headquarters here recently.

He said the Obama administration had all kinds of plans on how they would respond to China not honoring the ruling but in the end did not do very much.

In a landmark ruling on July 12, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) found no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to a “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea and said Beijing had breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines, which brought the case.

The court also ruled that many purported islands controlled by China are not, in fact, islands, but instead reefs or rocks, which do not generate territorial rights.

China has refused to honor the ruling and accused the judges of the tribunal of taking bribes from the Philippines in exchange for invalidating Beijing’s expansive and excessive claims in the South China Sea.

The ruling, according to Hiebert, was a “hallmark” that also defines what the situation is in the South China Sea.

When there are other disputes involving China, he stressed that the ruling can be brought out “but it’s going to be tough for the Philippines to walk us back.”

Former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, the top diplomat of the Aquino administration and the brains behind the arbitration case, criticized the Duterte administration for not protesting China’s deployment of missile systems in the South China Sea and for declaring that it would set aside the arbitral ruling.

“If a new Aquino and Del Rosario come to power in the future, how do they suddenly raise this again? I think the Philippines could have used this without rubbing the Chinese noses in it too much,” Hiebert said, referring to former president Benigno Aquino III.

“In some ways by starting to engage immediately was a good idea but may be not totally forgetting about the ruling. I think the Philippines would have had few stronger cards in their hands if they play, mention a little bit more,” he added.

Not engaging immediately after the arbitral tribunal ruled on the Philippines’ case against China, Hiebert said Manila missed the time and “China has already assumed that the Philippines has moved on.”

With its rebuilding of the islands in the South China Sea, he said China has made it clear that it is determined to keep its position as a dominant player in the South China Sea and there is not much to negotiate even if there is a talk, in light of the ruling, of possible joint exploration.