Resisting Chinese provocation

The arrogance of China’s repeated, lawless attacks on The Philippines demand no less than a response that will place Australian sailors on the frontline of maritime tensions in the South China Sea. Last Tuesday, Chinese Coast Guard cutters, not for the first time, rammed and used water cannons to impede a Philippines Bureau of Fisheries mission trying to resupply fishermen near the Scarborough Shoal, part of The Philippines’ economic zone but claimed by Beijing.

The onslaught took the standoff between Beijing and Manila to a dangerous new level. It was the 20th unprovoked attack by China on The Philippines’ sovereignty so far this year. Superstructure on Manila’s vessels was seriously damaged, as was navigational and communications equipment. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, at a meeting in Hawaii with Defence Minister Richard Marles and their counterparts from Japan and The Philippines, said the ongoing attacks breached international law. After the meeting, Mr Marles pledged that Australia was “utterly committed to asserting freedom of navigation” in the area. Doing so, as Ben Packham reported, will see Australia ramp up participation in naval exercises with the US, Japan and The Philippines. Our national interest demands no less.

China’s defiance of the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that went against it, and its attacks on Filipino vessels, are intolerable. Chinese Communist Party state media deluded no one claiming Filipino vessels were “conducting dangerous manoeuvres” and the Chinese Coast Guard was “forced to use water cannons to warn them”. Video shows it was the most serious such attack so far by China seeking to assert invalid territorial claims. The issue should feature during Anthony Albanese’s anticipated visit to Beijing.