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China has seized a reef challenged a few kilometers from the most important military outpost of the Philippines in the Southern China Sea, which increases the risk of a new dead end between the two rival applicants.
The Chinese Coast Guard “implemented maritime control and exercised its sovereign competence” on Sandy Cay this month, the military channel of the state diffuser CCTV reported SATURDAY. He said that the coast guard officers had deployed the Chinese flag to declare sovereignty over the reef in the Spratly islands, showing a photograph of the law.
This decision has marked the first time in many years that Beijing, which affirms that the Southern China Sea almost in its entirety, has officially planted its flag on another previously unoccupied land characteristic.
It occurs as the Philippines and its ally the United States leads Balikatan, its greatest annual military exercise, which will include coastal defense and island crisis exercises. They will be held from next week in the Filipino territory closest to the Spratlys.
Although just a sand bank only measuring only 200 square meters, Sandy Cay has a strategic value for China because international law grants him a territorial sea. This 12 -kilometer radius rides the island of Thitu, the reef of the Southern China Sea that the Philippines uses to follow the Chinese movements in the region.
The official declaration of Beijing’s sovereignty on Sandy Cay fears that Beijing intends to create unoccupied reefs and banks.
In the past two years, Manila has increased the coast guard patrols and sent scientific teams to investigate reports Chinese repair activity in Sandy Cay and three other reefs further south.
Some maritime experts argue that a new Chinese restoration is unlikely because the artificial islands built and militarized by Beijing over the past decade have given its soldiers and sufficient coast guard.
Until now, there is no sign of a permanent Chinese occupation of Sandy Cay or construction. A Philippin Maritime Security official said on Saturday that the Chinese coast guard had left after deploying the flag.
But the official declaration of sovereignty said that China could “increase their harassment against us in Pag-Asa,” he added, using the Philippin name of Thitu.
The Philippin Coast Guard has been operating a surveillance base in Thitu since the end of 2023, but Manila now improves a track and other infrastructure on the island. The building is one of the efforts to make its southern China Sea reefs more habitable and repel the Chinese activity increasingly aggressive.
Lyle Morris, a former Pentagon expert in China now in Asia Society Policy Institute, said that Sandy Cay has been a source of tension for years between China and the Philippines.
“China has established an almost constant presence around Sandy Cay for years, mainly using their maritime militia ships to surround neighboring waters,” said Morris. “They have intensified their presence since the Philippines began to strengthen the island of Pagasa [Thitu] and its track.
Morris said that Chinese action had not made a test for the United States, saying that it was more a “tactical decision” targeting the Philippines.
“This exerts more pressure on the Philippines to respond in one way or another,” added Morris. “If China physically occupied functionality, the Philippines would probably feel forced to answer. What type of answer is not clear. “
The Pentagon has returned requests for information to the White House, which did not comment.
The Chinese movement occurs while Washington and Beijing are mired in an in -depth trade war. American allies also watch closely to see how the Trump administration will take care of Chinese actions in the Southern China Sea.
Chinese law gives its coast guard the mandate to get on board and inspect foreign ships “intruding” in the waters claimed by Beijing and have their crews. This increases the risk of infiltration with the military and the Filipino coast guard in Thitu, in the waters, China now treats like its territorial sea.
China’s military assets are much stronger than Thitu’s outpost. Its installations on the reef suffered nearby include missiles on air surface, hangars, a track, a radar and a port of deep water shelters. But because it is only classified as an elevation of the low tide, suffered has no territorial sea by virtue of international law.
