South China Sea: Philippine military vows to continue aerial patrols after plane warned off by Chinese vessels near disputed reef

Chinese radio operators challenged the aircraft with local journalists on board ‘at least five times’ as it flew over Calderon Reef, Mischief Reef and Johnson Reef
The Philippines has been carrying out ‘sovereignty patrols’ since some 200 Chinese fishing vessels were spotted near Whitsun Reef, which falls within its exclusive economic zone

South China Sea

Raissa Roblesin Manila

Published: 6:47pm, 31 Mar 2021

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A Philippine military plane with local journalists on board ignored repeated radio warnings to “stay away” and “leave immediately” on Tuesday as it flew low over contested reefs near where Chinese vessels were moored in the South China Sea.

The incident occurred as hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the South China Sea have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately.

Marine Major General Edgard Arevalo, spokesman for the Philippines’ armed forces, dismissed Tuesday’s warnings that came from Chinese military outposts on occupied artificial reefs in the disputed waterway and said that the military overflights would continue, telling This Week In Asia “We regularly conduct air and naval patrols aside from other relevant measures to ensure maritime situational awareness. And if I may, those challenges have been customary”. “Our reply is likewise customary: ‘this is a Philippine government aircraft conducting a routine maritime patrol over the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). We are proceeding according to our planned route’,” he said.

Satellite imagery taken on March 23 shows Chinese vessels anchored at Whitsun Reef. Photo: Handout / Satellite image 2021 Maxar Technologies / AFP

Arevalo confirmed that journalists from GMA-7, TV5, Bombo Radyo Philippines and ABS-CBN were on board the military aircraft, after they had “requested to join the scheduled air sovereignty patrol for them to have their own, first hand footage [and sound recordings] of the situation”. While he did not say how often such patrols would be conducted, Arevalo insisted they would continue as it was a constitutional mandate of the armed forces to protect and defend the country’s sovereignty.

Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Saturday announced an increase in “sovereignty patrols” in response to some 200 Chinese fishing vessels massing near Whitsun Reef, which falls within the Philippines’ 200-mile (321-kilometre) EEZ. Lorenzana, who characterised the Chinese vessels as a maritime militia, said earlier that the Philippines’ increased patrols of the area were aimed at protecting the nation’s fishermen and sovereign rights.

In a statement issued last week, the Chinese embassy in Manila rejected descriptions of the 200 or more ships as a militia, saying they were merely fishing vessels taking refuge from rough seas.

The Philippine aircraft that conducted Tuesday’s patrol was “challenged at least five times” as it flew over Calderon Reef, Mischief Reef and Johnson Reef, according to Chiara Zambrano, a veteran ABS-CBN reporter who was on board at the time. She later said on Twitter it had been “both chilling and sobering” to witness first-hand the completed islands that China has built to stake its claim to the disputed waterway.

In an audio recording of one of the challenges, a voice speaking in Mandarin can be heard identifying itself as “Chigua Jiao” – the name China uses for Johnson South Reef – before adding: “You are already close to China’s islands and reefs. To avoid misjudgment, please stay away immediately.”

Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, noted that “Johnson Reef is one of China’s seven outposts [which it] has occupied since 1988”. “Along with Hughes [Reef] it is one of China’s two bases in Union Banks which also include Whitsun,” he told This Week In Asia.

In a statement, the Philippines’ task force on the West Philippine Sea – as Manila calls the part of the South China Sea that it claims as its own – expressed “deep concern over the continuing unlawful presence (swarming) of the Chinese maritime militia, which did not pull out”.

‘Prelude to occupation’: worries flare in Philippines over Chinese ships

“Neither the Philippines nor the international community will ever accept China’s assertion of its so-called ‘indisputable integrated sovereignty’ over almost all of the South China Sea,” the task force said, urging an immediate withdrawal of the 44 or so vessels that remain near Julian Felipe Reef – Manila’s name for Whitsun Reef. Some Chinese vessels have since been spotted near other geographical features claimed by the Philippines, it said.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, through which at least US$3.4 trillion-worth of global trade passes every year.

The Philippines won a landmark arbitration case on the dispute in 2016 at The Hague, which rejected Beijing’s sweeping claims to much of the disputed waterway, saying they had no legal basis. Yet President Rodrigo Duterte shied away from referring to the ruling for many years in favour of brokering closer ties with China, the Philippines’ top trading partner.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shows boxes of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines from China in Manila on March 29. Photo: Xinhua

He has been more vocal of late, however, expressing his concerns last week over the vessels near Whitsun Reef – which China calls Niué Jiao – to Huang Xilian, the Chinese ambassador in the Philippines.

An editorial on Chinese military news website cnqiang.com said it was abnormal and arrogant for the Philippines to drive away Chinese fishing vessels and increase its military activities in the region when the Chinese side had remained restrained and maintained a friendly attitude.

“Perhaps China does not want to have conflict with the Philippines at this time,” it said. “On the one hand, the Philippines as a whole is still friendly to China. On the other, it would easily provoke the Philippines and push it into the arms of the United States if China overreacts.”

In the Chinese state-run Global Times tabloid, military specialist Zhang Xuefeng was quoted as saying that while the Philippines’ planes posed a considerable threat to the “unarmed” Chinese fishing vessels “the skill level of Philippine pilots is average, and there is a risk of them falling into the sea if they fly at ultra-low altitude”. He further speculated that the plane being used to conduct the patrol flights was an FA-50 fighter imported from South Korea with “relatively limited” air combat capability.

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Meanwhile, 1 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine bought by the Philippine government arrived in Manila on Monday, even as the maritime stand-off between the two sides continues to simmer. The shipment followed on from an earlier donation by China of 1 million Sinovac doses, which included some 100,000 that were donated to the Philippine military by the Chinese military.

A senior Philippine military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity and has received his first dose of the Sinovac vaccine told This Week In Asia that Covid-19 “and the issue in the West Philippine Sea for us is separate. The pandemic is a health emergency and any approved vaccine will surely help us in this challenge”. “The situation in WPS is a matter of national interest … [and] we need to protect our interests with the goal of minimising risks,” he said.

The Philippines and China are set to hold a bilateral meeting on Friday, with Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin Jnr heading to Fujian province at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Additional reporting by Amber Wang, Reuters