In response, Filipino fishing boats and coast guard ships were ordered to the reef. China has apparently removed the barrier again – the maneuver could have been a provocation or an exercise. According to Reuters, there were previously small floating barriers, but they were cut up by the Philippine Coast Guard.
Beijing has so far refrained from taking military action. However, Beijing’s coast guard is patrolling the South China Sea, and there are also confrontations between fishing boats. Eva Seiwert, senior analyst at the Berlin Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), confirmed the strategy to the “Tagesspiegel”: “The incident should be understood above all as part of a pattern: It shows how China is securing and demonstrating its existing control over the reef without openly escalating militarily.” You operate in gray areas, in areas just below an open conflict.
The timing was obviously not chosen by chance. “It may well be that Chinese actors are using the global attention on the Strait of Hormuz and the Iran war to strengthen their maritime presence in the South China Sea,” said the expert.
China’s defense ministry did not respond to Reuters’ queries about the events. In January, ships from the Philippines and the US Navy sailed along the reef. There will be a joint maneuver in the waters of the Philippines in April with thousands of soldiers. The coast of the Zambales region, almost 200 kilometers from the reef, is also used.
Beijing said on Wednesday it would further expand more than 11,000 islands it considers its property to better manage them. This is part of a long-term strategy to strengthen sea power, secure additional natural resources and support territorial claims, the Japanese news site Japan Today reported.
As part of extensive land reclamation efforts over the years, China has built artificial islands, airstrips and military facilities in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Islands are a strategic frontier and the key to developing deep sea resources, the party’s own People’s Daily wrote in an article attributed to the party leadership in China’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
