The Philippines on Monday flatly rejected China’s declare to sovereignty over the South China Sea, dismissing a Chinese language embassy assertion {that a} Filipino diplomat had as soon as acknowledged that the disputed Scarborough Shoal didn’t belong to Manila — and warning Beijing that territorial claims are settled by worldwide regulation, not social media posts.
Overseas ministry spokesperson Rogelio Villanueva instructed reporters the Philippines held “indivisible, incontrovertible and longstanding sovereignty” over Scarborough Shoal and the islands Manila controls within the Spratly archipelago. The assertion was a direct response to a weekend put up by the Chinese language embassy in Manila citing a former Philippine ambassador’s remarks to a German radio station as proof that even Filipino officers had privately conceded the shoal was not Philippine territory.
“China should be reminded that maritime and territorial claims are topic to established worldwide authorized procedures and dispute settlement mechanisms, not by unilateral proclamations or social media posts,” Villanueva mentioned.
The Chinese language embassy pushed again the identical day. Spokesperson Ji Lingpeng denied that Beijing had ever claimed the whole thing of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory and accused Manila of deliberate distortion. “The Philippine facet’s deliberate distortion of China’s place is unconstructive and has no advantage,” Ji mentioned in a press release.
The trade is the most recent spherical in an more and more pointed public argument between Philippine officers and the Chinese language embassy, one which has moved from formal diplomatic channels onto social media platforms the place either side now recurrently commerce accusations earlier than a regional and world viewers. The shift in area has not softened the substance — if something, the general public nature of the dispute has hardened positions on either side, giving every authorities’s home viewers a ringside seat to confrontations which may as soon as have been managed quietly.
On the bodily centre of the dispute sits Scarborough Shoal, a small however strategically vital atoll positioned 200 kilometres off the Philippine coast and firmly inside Manila’s unique financial zone. China’s coast guard has maintained a steady presence there since 2012, exercising de facto management with out formal sovereignty ever having been legally established. The shoal’s worth isn’t sentimental: it sits astride main delivery lanes, affords wealthy fishing grounds, and supplies a pure harbour the place vessels can shelter throughout storms. Its location contained in the Philippine EEZ makes China’s efficient occupation a each day affront to Manila underneath the phrases of worldwide maritime regulation.
“Sovereignty isn’t merely claimed, it’s exercised,” Villanueva mentioned — a pointed formulation that cuts each methods, acknowledging China’s bodily presence on the shoal whereas asserting that presence confers no authorized standing.
The authorized structure underpinning Manila’s place was established 9 years in the past. In 2016, the Everlasting Court docket of Arbitration dominated that China’s sweeping historic declare to a lot of the South China Sea — demarcated by the so-called nine-dash line — had no foundation underneath worldwide regulation.
The ruling was an entire victory for the Philippines on the central query of Chinese language maritime entitlement. Beijing rejected it instantly and has continued to reject it, treating the choice as illegitimate and continuing as if it doesn’t exist.
That hole between the authorized report and the bodily actuality on the water defines the each day texture of the dispute. Philippine vessels making an attempt to resupply troops stationed on options Manila controls within the Spratlys have repeatedly been met by Chinese language coast guard ships deploying water cannons, blocking manoeuvres and, in some incidents, seizure of provides and tools. Manila has characterised these actions as harmful and unlawful. Beijing has described its coast guard as appearing professionally inside what it considers its personal territorial waters.
The incidents have amassed steadily over the previous a number of years, every one individually managed however collectively constructing an image of a relationship underneath sustained stress. The Philippines underneath President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has taken a markedly extra assertive public posture towards China than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who cultivated hotter ties with Beijing and largely downplayed maritime confrontations. Marcos has moved to deepen safety ties with the USA and has been extra keen to publicise Chinese language actions that earlier administrations might need dealt with by quiet protest.
China’s method has been to contest each Philippine assertion publicly and at size, utilizing its embassy’s social media accounts to problem Manila’s historic and authorized claims in actual time. The invocation of the previous ambassador’s radio interview — apparently surfaced from years-old materials — suggests Beijing is actively mining the historic report for ammunition to make use of within the info dimension of a dispute it can not win in court docket.
The 2016 arbitration ruling stays the definitive worldwide authorized assertion on Chinese language claims within the South China Sea. Its findings bind the Philippines and China underneath the UN Conference on the Legislation of the Sea, to which each are signatories.
China’s refusal to simply accept the ruling has created a state of affairs by which the authorized final result and the strategic actuality level in reverse instructions — with Philippine fishermen nonetheless unable to freely entry waters a world tribunal confirmed are theirs, and Chinese language coast guard vessels nonetheless stationed at a shoal the identical tribunal discovered China has no proper to regulate.
