China has warned it would "never allow" the Philippines to go ahead with recently mooted plans to reinforce its military presence in the contested South China Sea.
The fiery statement, delivered by Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Wu Qian on Thursday, was a response to Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., who announced this week that the Southeast Asian country would upgrade nine installations including at Second Thomas Shoal, a hotspot controlled by Manila.
Beijing claims ownership over nearly all of the energy-rich sea and its many territorial features—islands, reefs, shoals and rocks. It now regularly blockades Philippine government supply runs to contested features in what observers say is an effort to seize control of any outpost the U.S. ally lets fall into neglect.
Despite lacking sufficient resources to police these areas, which under international maritime law fall within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Manila persists with the missions.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., it has relied on a public awareness campaign to call attention to China's increasingly forceful response.
The Philippines armed forces plan to upgrade a desalination system at Second Thomas Shoal, where the grounded BRP Sierra Madre, a warship-turned-marine base, represents Manila's stake at the territory Beijing calls Ren'ai Reef.
The Philippines also intends to acquire more ships and radar systems from other friendly governments in the region.
"Whether or not to buy a ship is a matter for the Philippines, but anything that infringes on China's sovereignty and security, and undermines regional peace and stability, China will never allow it," Wu, the Chinese defense spokesperson, told a monthly press briefing in Beijing.
The Philippines armed forces did not immediately respond to Newsweek's written request for comment.
An estimated $3 trillion in annual trade passes through the South China Sea, which connects Asia to vital shipping lanes to and from Europe. Beijing's claim to vast maritime zones and territories in the area—contested by five other neighbors—has raised alarm throughout the region over economic security.
The long-running China-Philippines dispute centers on areas in the Spratly Islands archipelago—known as the Nansha Islands in China—within the Philippines' EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles from the Philippine coast.
Beijing says outposts like the Sierra Madre are illegal. However, the Philippines, supported by the United States and other allies with economic interests in the region, argues that China is in violation of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS.
China has "indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters," Wu said, citing historical rights.
A decade ago, the Philippine government effectively took China to court at The Hague and won. An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea were invalid under UNCLOS, but the Chinese government rejected the verdict.
"The current difficulties facing China-Philippines relations lie in the Philippine side's betrayal of trust, its collusion with extra-regional major powers, and its continued infringements and provocations in the South China Sea, undermining China's legitimate rights and interests," Wu said.
U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that the decades-old U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to attacks anywhere, including the South China Sea.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
