MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The United States said on Tuesday that it is supporting the Philippines in a new stalemate with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, where Manila has asked a Chinese fishing flotilla to leave a reef. China ignored the call, insisting it owns the offshore territory.
The United States Embassy said it shared the Philippines’ concerns and accused China of using “maritime militias to intimidate, provoke and threaten other nations, which undermines peace and security in the region”.
“We support the Philippines, our oldest treaty ally in Asia,” the United States Embassy in Manila said in a statement.
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana demanded on Sunday that some 200 Chinese vessels, he said, were militia boats, to leave the Whitsun reef, a shallow region of coral about 175 nautical miles (324 kilometers) away. west of the city of Bataraza, in the province of Palawan, in the western Philippines.
Philippine officials said the reef, which they call Julian Felipe, is well within the country’s internationally recognized exclusive economic zone, over which the Philippines “has the exclusive right to explore or conserve any resources”.
The Philippine coast guard spotted around 220 Chinese ships moored on the reef, which Beijing and Vietnam also claim, on March 7.
On Monday, a surveillance aircraft spotted 183 Chinese vessels still on the reef, said Philippine military chief Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, who released aerial photos of Chinese vessels in one of the most disputed regions of the strategic waterway.
The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against the Chinese presence, said Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
China insisted that it owns the reef, which it calls Niué Jiao, and said Chinese ships had converged on the area to avoid rough waters.
Beijing has denied that the ships are maritime militias. “Any speculation in this regard does not help at all, but it causes unnecessary irritation,” the Chinese embassy said in a statement on Monday. “It is hoped that the situation can be dealt with in an objective and rational way.”
The US Embassy, however, said that “Chinese boats have been docking in this area for many months in increasing numbers, regardless of the weather.”
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have been locked in a tense territorial standoff over the busy and resource-rich waterway for decades.
President Rodrigo Duterte would talk to the Chinese ambassador in Manila about the matter, his spokesman, Harry Roque, told a news conference.
Duterte has cultivated friendly ties with Beijing since taking office in 2016 and has been criticized for not immediately demanding Chinese compliance with an international arbitration decision that invalidated Beijing’s historic claims over virtually the entire sea. China refused to acknowledge the 2016 decision, which it called “a scam”, and continues to challenge it.
Duterte sought infrastructure, trade and investment funds from China, which also donated and pledged to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines while the Philippines faces an alarming increase in coronavirus infections.