China patrols Scarborough Shoal after Philippines warns of threat

BEIJING/HANOI: China’s military and coast guard said they carried out patrols near disputed waters in the South China Sea on Sunday, a day after the Philippines said it remained under threat from Beijing despite a recent easing in US-China tensions.

Philippine and US forces held a five-day maritime exercise in the same waters last week near the Scarborough Shoal, the third such drill this year, to strengthen interoperability and maritime security, the Philippine military said on Sunday.

Scarborough Shoal, in waters that Manila calls the West Philippine Sea, is one of Asia’s most contested maritime features and has become a frequent flashpoint between China and the Philippines over sovereignty and fishing rights.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command said in a statement on the WeChat platform that its naval and air units carried out combat readiness patrols in the “territorial sea and airspace” of the atoll and its surrounding areas.

“Such patrols serve as an effective countermeasure to cope with all sorts of rights violations and provocative acts”, the command said. It did not mention specific countries.

China’s coast guard said in a separate statement it conducted law enforcement patrols near the Scarborough Shoal, adding that since this month it had dealt with ships engaged in “illegal rights-violation activities in accordance with laws and regulations”, without elaborating.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said the exercise with the US from Tuesday to Saturday, including visit-board-search-and-seizure drills, underscored both countries’ commitment to stronger defence ties, improved maritime domain awareness and support for a rules-based order at sea.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

China’s patrols took place as defence ministers, military chiefs and policymakers from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond gathered in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence forum.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Manila remains under “severe threat” from China territorially and politically, despite a recent thaw in US-China tensions following a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping this month.

“We have no choice but really to be resilient and to stand up against Chinese aggression,” he said.

The Philippines and China have been locked in repeated maritime standoffs in the South China Sea in recent years, at times resulting in collisions between vessels and injuries to personnel.