The Philippine government has filed a diplomatic protest after Chinese forces seized fishing equipment set up by Filipinos in a disputed shoal in their latest territorial spat in the South China Sea.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday night said in a statement that the Philippines “also resolutely objected” to China continuing to issue radio challenges to Philippine aircraft patrolling over the disputed waters.
A Chinese government spokesperson responded yesterday that its coast guard was enforcing the law in Chinese waters, and that the Philippine aircraft had harmed China’s sovereignty and threatened its security.
Photo: AP
“China urges the Philippines to immediately stop its illegal and provocative activities,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) told a daily briefing in Beijing.
The Philippine government has protested China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the contested sea, despite a dramatic improvement in relations under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has nurtured friendly ties with Beijing while often criticizing the US, which has raised alarm over his deadly anti-drugs crackdown.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately provide other details on what it said was the Chinese coast guard’s illegal confiscation of the fishing equipment.
The devices, locally called payaos, were seized in May after they had been set up by Filipino fishermen in the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) off the northwestern Philippine province of Zambales.
The shoal is also claimed by Taiwan and China.
China seized the shoal after a tense sea standoff in 2012, and the Philippines brought its disputes to international arbitration the following year.
A tribunal in 2016 invalidated China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, but Beijing continues to ignore and defy the decision.
Radio warnings by Chinese forces against Philippine air force patrol aircraft have increased around missile-protected Chinese artificial islands, Philippine officials said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused China of taking advantage of the intense preoccupation of governments over the COVID-19 pandemic to advance its territorial claims.
Last month, the US government rejected nearly all of Beijing’s South China Sea claims, and in effect sided with Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei in each of their territorial spats with Beijing.
China responded by saying that the US was trying to sow discord and was meddling in an Asian dispute to flex its muscle and incite a confrontation.
Separately, Manila city officials said they have closed four stores selling Chinese beauty products with labels that identified the Philippine capital as a province of China.
They accused the stores of “misrepresentation” and breaching other business regulations.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno has taken steps to have two Chinese businessmen associated with the beauty products investigated and deported.
“This is unacceptable,” Moreno said, adding that he would not allow the country’s sovereignty to be disparaged. “I’m not a governor of China.”
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