Risknet18 June 2024

The Philippines said one of its sailors suffered serious injuries in an “intentional high-speed ramming” by a Chinese coast guard vessel in the South China Sea yesterday.
 
The incident occurred during an attempt to resupply a small contingent of Philippine marines stationed aboard a rusting naval vessel that Manila deliberately grounded on the uninhabited Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to ward off Chinese encroachment.
 
The Chinese coast guard claimed it was forced to act when a Philippine vessel approached in “an unprofessional manner,” a depiction of events Manila described as “false and misleading.”
 
The collision prompted the United States to renew its warning that it is obligated under treaty to defend the Philippines from military aggression by a third country.
 
The Second Thomas Shoal is about 100 miles from the nearest coast of the Philippines and is within Manila’s standard international 200-nautical mile maritime zone.
 
It also falls within China’s boldly expansive “10-dash line” claiming sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.
 
As part of its attempt to push Philippine forces out of islands and reefs it covets, Beijing’s heavily armed coastguard routinely harasses Philippine military, government and commercial vessels, sometimes resulting in collisions.
 
Philippine naval personnel were injured for the first time on 4 March.
 
That incident began with a Chinese coastguard vessel sideswiping a Philippine patrol vessel near the Second Thomas Shoal.
 
Soon after, two Chinese coastguard vessels simultaneously fired watercannon at a supply boat chartered by the Philippine military, injuring four men aboard and causing minor damage.
 
Using coastguard ships and supposed fishing boats, China in 2023 stepped up attempts to push Philippine forces off the shoal by harassing resupply vessels.
 
The Philippines has stepped up joint naval patrols with the US, Australia and other allied countries in contested waters.
 
From 22 April to 10 May, some 16,000 Philippine and US military personnel engaged in combat exercises with scenarios mainly focus on Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.  The annual exercises for the first time extended beyond the 12-nautical miles of sovereign waters extending from Philippine shores.  Among other sophisticated military assets, the US deployed its Strategic Mid-Range Fires missile system, known as Typhon, which has a range of up to 1,550 miles. Some 250 French and Australian naval personnel also participated.
 
It is worth noting that China has used similar tactics to intimidate Vietnam and Malaysia in their exclusive economic zones and that the Second Thomas Shoal lies along a critical global shipping lane.
 
Washington views expanded military ties with the Philippines as vital to deterring a possible Chinese invasion or blockade of Taiwan, which is separated from the northern Philippine island of Luzon by the Luzon Strait, a vital global trade corridor.
 
The Chinese military conducts near-daily air and sea patrols and regularly stages exercises in part of the Luzon Strait called the Bashi Channel, a waterway between Mavulis Island of the Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan.
 
Military conflict is unlikely but the situation should be monitored.