Philippine supply convoys to a military outpost in a disputed area of the South China Sea must pass inspection by China’s forces, a Chinese diplomat has asserted.
“If the Philippines needs to send living necessities, out of humanitarianism, China is willing to allow it if the Philippines informs China in advance and after on-site verification is conducted,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Thursday. “China will monitor the whole process.”
China’s Coast Guard and maritime militia forces have blocked a series of efforts to deliver supplies to Philippine Marines stationed on the Sierra Madre, a World War II-era tank landing ship that the Philippine Navy ran aground in order to fortify their rights in the South China Sea. Chinese officials have intensified their military and rhetorical pressure on Manila in recent weeks in a bid to prevent the Philippines from delivering “construction materials” that might be used to turn the hulk into a more permanent outpost.
“We demand that the Philippines tow away the warship at once,” Mao said. “If the Philippines sends large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempts to build fixed facilities and permanent outpost, China will not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty.”
An international court ruled in 2016 that China’s expansive claims, which presume to cover stretches of ocean hundreds of miles away from the Chinese coast, have no legitimate basis. The dispute has high stakes for the balance of global power, in part because of a mutual defense treaty between the United States and the Philippines — and also because China has put military outposts on artificial islands that it placed elsewhere in the South China Sea, which is one of the most important naval and shipping lanes in the world.
“China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said Thursday during an address to a joint session of Congress. “While such a challenge from China continues, our commitment to upholding a free and open international order based on the rule of law, as well as peace, will continue to be the defining agenda going forward.”
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Kishida’s itinerary in Washington features not only a state visit with President Joe Biden, but also a trilateral summit with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. The leaders meet Friday, just days after Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and the United States conducted joint naval exercise in the South China Sea.
“It is my intention also to exchange views with my U.S. and Japanese counterparts on various regional security issues of mutual concern,” Marcos said Wednesday before departing Manila for Washington. “The main intent of this trilateral agreement is for us to be able to continue to flourish, to be able to help one another, and of course, to keep the South China Sea as a freedom—to keep the peace in the South China Sea and the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.”