South China Sea: Beijing will ‘respond resolutely’ if Manila builds permanent structure on disputed reef

Clashes between China’s coastguard and the Philippine navy around the Second Thomas Shoal have intensified in recent months, prompting the Philippines to step up plans to strengthen its occupation of the land feature with a potential “civilian structure” like a lighthouse or research centre. The Philippine congress recently allocated funding under its 2024 national budget for the project.

But Mao said the Second Thomas Shoal was an uninhabited reef and the establishment of any permanent structures would be a significant change to the status quo.

“[Building a permanent structure] would be a major attempt by the Philippine side to renege on its commitments, change its policy and ruin the unmanned and unbuilt state of the Renai Jiao once again.”

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The Second Thomas Shoal is located within the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, but China claims sovereignty over the reef, as well as the entire Spratly Islands, through a self-proclaimed “nine-dash line”. The declaration was declared invalid by an international arbitration court at The Hague in 2016.

Mao repeated the foreign ministry’s stance in denouncing the arbitration ruling, insisting that China’s sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, including the Second Thomas Shoal, and its surrounding waters was “formed and established in long history” and was “indisputable”.

Simmering tensions over the Second Thomas Shoal boiled over in recent months as China’s coastguard repeatedly blocked the Philippine navy from resupplying military personnel stationed on a ship that was deliberately stranded on the reef in 1999.

Manila accused Beijing’s coastguard vessels and its maritime militia of firing water cannons at its resupply boats, and “deliberately” ramming them. Earlier this month, the chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, Romeo Brawner, was reportedly on board one of the boats that was rammed.

China accused the Philippines of “provocatively ramming Chinese coastguard ships”, actions it labelled as “dangerous and unprofessional”.

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On Thursday, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian accused the Philippines of “staging a show of conflict” by embedding journalists on its supply boats and “releasing fake news”.

“China … will not stand by idly as the Philippines repeatedly provokes trouble and creates a scene,” Wu said.

South China Morning Post