China’s military and coast guard conducted patrols near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Sunday, a day after the Philippines claimed it was still under “severe threat” from Beijing.
The manoeuvres followed a five-day joint maritime exercise by Philippine and US forces in the same contested waters last week, marking their third such drill this year.
Scarborough Shoal is a highly contentious maritime feature and a frequent flashpoint between the two nations over sovereignty and fishing rights. The recent US-Philippine exercises, which ended on Saturday, were designed to strengthen interoperability and maritime security, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s military.
On Sunday, the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command announced that its naval and air units carried out “combat readiness patrols” in the “territorial sea and airspace” of the atoll and its surrounding areas. It said the patrols were intended to “serve as an effective countermeasure to cope with all sorts of rights violations and provocative acts”, although it did not name any country.
Separately, the Chinese coast guard confirmed law enforcement patrols near the shoal, adding that it had dealt with ships this month that were engaged in “illegal rights-violation activities in accordance with laws and regulations”, without elaborating.
The Philippine military said the exercise with the US, which included visit-board-search-and-seizure drills, underscored the allies’ commitment to stronger defence ties, improved maritime domain awareness and support for a rules-based order at sea. The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest patrols near Scarborough Shoal coincided with the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence forum held in Singapore, where defence ministers, military chiefs and policymakers from across the Asia-Pacific region had gathered.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the forum, Philippine defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro asserted that Manila remained under “severe threat” from China, both territorially and politically.
The comment comes despite a recent thaw in US-China tensions following a summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping earlier this month.
“We have no choice but really to be resilient and to stand up against Chinese aggression,” Mr Teodoro said.
In recent years, Manila and Beijing have been embroiled in repeated maritime standoffs in the South China Sea which have occasionally led to collisions between vessels and injuries to personnel.
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea through a “nine-dash line” on its maps, which encroaches upon the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China’s claims lacked support under international law, a decision that Beijing rejected.
Taiwan makes broadly similar claims to China’s in the South China Sea.
