On May 4, a ship identified as the “Chinese Maritime Militia” by the Philippine Coast Guard (back right) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship (front right) sailed near the Unaiza chartered by the Philippine military to execute Supply mission at Second Thomas Shoal.
Jam Starossa | AFP | Getty Images
China on Friday accused the Philippines of “provocations” in the South China Sea with U.S. support, a week after Beijing and Manila blamed each other for a new confrontation in the disputed waters.
“The Philippines, with the support and solicitation of the United States, has provoked troubles in many places in the South China Sea,” Wu Qian, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said on his official WeChat account.
The Philippines is well aware that its territorial scope is determined by a series of international treaties and has never included China’s Nansha Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
Beijing and Manila have engaged in a series of confrontations this year over coral reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea, which China claims nearly all of.
The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea. They worry that China’s broad claims infringe on their exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the non-territorial waters extending 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from a country’s land coast.
The Philippines’ National Maritime Commission and its National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Beijing’s latest remarks.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Philippine officials said last week that Chinese coast guard vessels fired water cannons and Flanking a Manila Fisheries Bureau vessel En route to deliver supplies to Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal, a move that has been condemned by the United States
The Chinese Coast Guard said four Philippine ships attempted to enter waters surrounding Scarborough Shoal that China says it owns.
China submitted maritime charts to the United Nations earlier this month that it said supported its claims to the waters.
After the chart was submitted, a spokesman for the Philippine National Maritime Commission said China’s claims were baseless and illegal.
In 2016, the arbitral tribunal ruled that China’s claims had no basis in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and that its blockade of Scarborough Shoal violated international law.
Beijing has never acknowledged the decision.
The sovereignty of Scarborough Shoal has never been established.
The Philippines and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have spent years negotiating with Beijing on a code of conduct for the strategic waterway, with some countries in the group insisting that it be based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Exclusive economic zones give coastal states jurisdiction over living and non-living resources in the water and on the seafloor.
