South China Sea: Manila gets tough on Beijing over Whitsun Reef row, earning praise from even Duterte’s critics
- The swarming of Chinese vessels in the South China Sea could signal a shift in the pro-Beijing position that Manila has cultivated for five years
- President Rodrigo Duterte’s aide has warned that China’s ‘territorial incursions’ could trigger ‘unwanted hostilities’ between the two nations
In a testy message to the Chinese embassy on Monday, Manila warned it would file diplomatic protests for every day that Beijing’s maritime militia ships continued to linger near the Whitsun Reef, which sits within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.
The warning came as Duterte’s aide Salvador Panelo said the incident was straining ties and could “trigger unwanted hostilities” between the two nations. “We can negotiate on matters of mutual concern and benefit, but make no mistake about it – our sovereignty is non-negotiable,” he said in a statement.
The messages were the latest in a series of acrimonious exchanges between Philippine officials and the Chinese embassy that could signal a shift in the pro-Beijing position that the Duterte administration has cultivated in the last five years.
The Philippines revealed two weeks ago that more than 200 Chinese vessels, including those from the maritime militia, had been moored near the reef since early March.
Defence officials were concerned that Beijing would take the feature and build an artificial island and then a base, as it had done in 2012 with the Scarborough Shoal, another island within the Philippines’ EEZ.
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Philippines sounds alarm over 200 Chinese ships in the South China Sea
The war of words began on Saturday, when Lorenzana called on Chinese maritime militia vessels to depart the Whitsun Reef. Rubbishing Beijing’s explanation that the ships had been sheltering from bad weather, Lorenzana said: “Get out already.”