China and Philippines' war on the high seas: How two countries have rammed each others' ships and blockaded tiny South China Sea islands in territorial battle that threatens to spiral into WW3

Daily Mail​

01-05-2025

Each time China sends its warplanes and navy vessels to encircle Taiwan in alarming war games, the world is forced to confront the chilling prospect of a blockade or even full-blown invasion of the vital island nation.
But further south, there is a second conflict brewing between China and another key ally of the United States - the Philippines.
Under authoritarian President Xi Jinping, Beijing has continued to expand its reach into the South China Sea's strategically vital and resource-rich waters bordered by several Southeast Asian nations.
Each of these countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam, all lay claim to different parts of the sea and a litany of small islands, shoals and reefs adrift within it.
But China insists it should own virtually the entire sea and its strategic outposts, including swathes of territory within the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) off the shores of all its island neighbours.
On Monday, the Philippines rejected China's claim to Sandy Cay - a group of three sandbars less than 200 kilometres off the Philippine coast - after a Chinese state-owned newspaper last week published images of coast guard officers holding up a Chinese flag there.
That prompted the Philippines' coast guard, along with a navy and maritime police team, to land on the sandbars and unfurl the Philippines flag, a move that was in turn harshly condemned and branded 'illegal' by Beijing.
But this is just the latest in a long line of disputes which are growing ever more frequent and intense.
Now, fears are mounting that a protracted spat could descend into an armed conflict between China and the US-allied Philippines - a scenario which could hasten a regional or even global fallout.
At the heart of the tensions between China and the Philippines lies a scattering of rocks, shoals, reefs and atolls across the South China Sea, most notably the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, over which both countries assert sovereignty.
The Philippines bases its claims on proximity and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which most of the contested features lie within its EEZ.
China, meanwhile, claims almost the entire sea via its so-called 'nine-dash line', a sweeping boundary drawn on a map in the 1940s that has no legal basis under international law.
That illegality was confirmed in 2016, when a Hague-based tribunal ruled overwhelmingly in favour of the Philippines, declaring China's claims invalid.
Dr Gregory Poling, Director of the Southeast Asia Programme at the CSIS think tank, said: 'The very existence of the Nine-Dash Line, I think, is an affront to these countries... China is imposing the idea that these waters are disputed on smaller countries, where everybody else gets 200 miles, the Chinese get 1,000 miles.'
But instead of pulling back, China has only looked to expand its presence since the ruling, militarising several natural and artificial islands - including Scarborough Shoal - and deploying coast guard ships and naval vessels to patrol the contested waters.
As a result, Chinese and Philippine military and civilian vessels have routinely come to blows in the South China Sea as of late.
These clashes, several of which have resulted in injuries to crew and damaged vessels amid ramming attacks, the use of water cannons and even lasers, are stoking tensions as the Philippines defies what it views as Beijing's policy of imperialist expansion and disregard for territorial sovereignty.
In August, a Philippine coast guard vessel, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, sustained significant damage when it was repeatedly rammed by a Chinese ship close to Sabina Shoal, about 130 kilometres west of the Philippine province of Palawan, which is part of the hotly contested Spratly Islands.
The shoal is well within the internationally recognised EEZ of the Philippines.
Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coast guard said the Magbanua dropped its anchor just off the coast of the Shoal and said it would not withdraw from the region 'despite the harassment, bullying activities and escalatory action of the Chinese coast guard'.
Video released by the Philippine coast guard appeared to clearly show the Magbanua being rammed by a Chinese coast guard ship, even as Beijing claimed the Philippine vessel had altered its path and pursued a collision course.
Close to Sabina Shoal lies the Second Thomas Shoal, where a small Philippine military detachment is stationed.
This outpost has become a litmus test of Philippine resolve and Chinese intent as Beijing's ships hassle Philippine vessels conducting supply runs to and from the shoal.
In February 2023, the Philippines accused a Chinese coast guard ship of hitting a coast guard boat with a military-grade laser.
Manila said the laser temporarily blinded some of its crew in the disputed South China Sea, calling it a 'blatant' violation of Manila's sovereign rights.
The Chinese ship also manoeuvred dangerously close, about 450 feet, to block the Philippine patrol vessel BRP Malapascua from approaching Second Thomas Shoal.
A Chinese coast guard shoots water cannons at a Philippine boat in the South China sea
Then in December of that year, another video shared by the Philippine coast guard showed Chinese ships blasting powerful water cannons at much smaller Philippine vessels off Scarborough Shoal.
Scarborough Shoal is 240 kilometres west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan, but China in 2012 assumed control of the territory in a blatant land grab.
Chinese state television said the country's coast guard had used 'control measures in accordance with the law' against the Philippine vessels that had 'intruded' into waters around the shoal.
These incidents, in which Chinese vessels seek to intimidate or attack Philippine vessels without resorting to overt military force, have been characterised as a cornerstone of Beijing's 'grey-zone tactics' to expand its influence in the South China Sea.
'By resorting to an array of grey zone tactics, Beijing aims to progressively eat away at the status quo in the South China Sea while staying under the threshold of crisis,' said Dr Euan Graham, an expert in Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
'Through the skilful coordinated use of assets... grey zone tactics have already enabled Beijing to exert effective control over large tracts of the South China Sea... If China succeeds in dominating the South China Sea, it is likely to dominate Southeast Asia at large, as well as gaining strategic leverage over the major maritime economies of Northeast Asia,' he said in a policy paper for the Prospect Foundation.
At first glance, the fervent competition over a small collection of reefs, sandbars and uninhabited spits of land adrift in a huge sea may seem unwarranted.
But the South China Sea is one of the world's most important trade arteries through which more than $2 trillion in trade flows on an annual basis.
It is also believed to contain vast, untapped reserves of oil and natural gas, and the waters surrounding many of the shoals, atolls and reefs are crucial for fishing, an industry that supports millions of livelihoods in the Philippines alone.
Establishing a strong military presence and maritime infrastructure at key locations in the South China Sea is therefore a priority for China and its export-based, resource-hungry economy.
Control of the sea also allows Beijing to challenge the United States' role as regional security guarantor.
America has made a concerted effort to strike security alliances with members of the 'first island chain', a ring of territories running from Japan to the Philippines, to form a natural barrier against Chinese military expansion into the Pacific.
The Philippines, along with Taiwan, is a key part of this chain and the US has ramped up joint patrols and military aid to the Philippines while expanding access to Philippine bases under the 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
Western-aligned allies Japan and Australia have also increased naval cooperation with the Philippines as part of the united front to deter China.