China anchors ‘monster ship’ in Philippine waters of South China Sea

Manila: The Philippine Coast Guard said on Saturday that China’s largest coastguard vessel has anchored in Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, and is meant to intimidate its smaller Asian neighbour.

The China coastguard’s 165-metre ‘monster ship’ entered Manila’s 200-nautical mile EEZ on July 2, spokesperson for the PCG Jay Tarriela told a news forum.

The Chinese Coast Guard ‘monster’ ship.Credit: PCG

The PCG warned the Chinese vessel it was in the Philippine’s EEZ and asked about their intentions, he said.

“It’s an intimidation on the part of the China Coast Guard,” Tarriela said.

“We’re not going to pull out and we’re not going to be intimidated.”

China’s embassy in Manila and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s coast guard has no publicly available contact information.

The Chinese ship, which has also deployed a small boat, was anchored 800 metres away from the PCG’s vessel, Tarriela said.

In May, the PCG deployed a ship to the Sabina shoal to deter small-scale reclamation by China, which denied the claim. China has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands in the South China Sea, building air force and other military facilities, causing concern in Washington and around the region.

China claims most of the South China Sea, a key conduit for $US3 trillion ($4.4 trillion) of annual ship-borne trade, as its own territory. Beijing rejects the 2016 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration which said its expansive maritime claims had no legal basis.

Following a high-level dialogue, the Philippines and China agreed on Tuesday for the need to “restore trust” and “rebuild confidence” to better manage maritime disputes.

Tensions in the disputed waterway have boiled over into violence in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in the latest June 17 clash that Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard.

The US, a treaty ally, has offered support but Manila prefers to handle operations on its own, Armed Forces Chief General Romeo Brawner told Reuters this week.

“Yes, of course, they have been offering help and they asked us how they could help us in any way,” he said. “We try to exhaust all possible options that we have before we ask for help.”

Manila and Washington are bound by the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty, a military pact that can be invoked in the case of armed attacks on Philippine forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea.

Confrontations between the Philippines and China in Asia’s most contested waters have increased in frequency over the past year as Beijing has pressed its claim to the waterway and Manila continued missions to bring supplies to soldiers living aboard a rusty, ageing warship that it grounded on a contested shoal.

Reuters

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