China holds military exercises near disputed islands with Philippines

The military exercises are rare around the reef, where the Philippines on Wednesday held two days of joint naval and air exercises with the United States, Canada and Australia.

Beijing and Manila have carried out military activities in recent months following several incidents around hotly contested islands in the South China Sea.

China is conducting joint combat patrols in the sea and air near the Huangyan Island, the Chinese Army’s Southern Theater Command said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said the operation was aimed at “testing the troops’ reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility and joint strike capabilities.”

The military stressed that “all military activities that disrupt the situation in the South China Sea, create tension, and undermine regional peace and stability are under control,” an apparent reference to the ongoing exercises the Philippines is conducting with its Western allies.

China claims most of the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Other coastal nations, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, have competing and sometimes overlapping claims.

Each country usually controls several small islands.

– ‘Intimidation’ –
Beijing took over Scarborough Shoal, where Wednesday’s drill took place, from Manila in 2012. Since then it has stationed ships there that the Philippines says harasses fishermen trying to enter the area.

Jay Batongbacal, director of the Manila Institute for Maritime Affairs and the Law of the Sea, told AFP that Chinese troops have deployed there in the past, but that the new exercise on Wednesday was aimed at “intimidation,” he said.

“It’s definitely a message, a show of strength,” he believes.

But Ja Ian Chong, a professor at the National University of Singapore and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, said the tension may be relative.

“If in the end the confrontation remains limited, it is because all sides have the right positions and most importantly want to make their point,” he told AFP.

Conversely, exercises involving the Philippines, the United States, Australia and Canada are also taking place in the South China Sea west of the Philippine island of Palawan, the Philippine military said on Wednesday.

She said the United States had deployed a warship and a helicopter.

The joint exercise is intended to “support the emergence of a” free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to a U.S. Navy press release.

They see the phrase, which the United States often uses to refer to an Asia-Pacific region free from hegemony, as an implicit way of criticizing China and its territorial claims.

– Ship grounded –
Philippine Chief of Staff Romeo Brauner said the exercise “underscores the commitment of both our countries to ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

In recent months, tensions between China and the Philippines have reached levels not seen in years.

Verbal and physical altercations have been particularly frequent around Second Thomas Atoll, where Philippine soldiers are stationed on a warship that was deliberately grounded by Manila in 1999 to assert its sovereignty claims.

Despite the tensions, Beijing and Manila have reached a “temporary arrangement” for the supply of Philippine troops on the atoll.

Since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos came to power in 2022, Manila has asserted its sovereignty claims more firmly in the face of Beijing, which itself has no intention of yielding to its demands.

The China-Philippines confrontation has heightened concerns about a potential conflict in which Washington could intervene due to its mutual defense treaty with Manila.

China often accuses the United States of deliberately supporting countries that dispute territorial sovereignty with it to counter its growing power.