Over 100 Chinese Militia Boats Challenge US Ally in Potential Flashpoint

More than 100 ships from China's paramilitary maritime militia have been accused of "swarming" disputed ground in the South China Sea claimed by both Beijing and Manila.

The V-shaped Whitsun Reef is part the Spratly Islands archipelago, home to a number of features contested by half a dozen nations including China and the Philippines. Whitsun, which the Filipinos call Julian Felipe and the Chinese call Niu'e, sits about 175 nautical miles west the Philippine province of Palawan, inside the latter's internationally recognized exclusive economic zone.

Tensions have escalated between Manila and Beijing in recent months due to several notable confrontations between the Philippines' government vessels and large patrol ships of the China Coast Guard, which are often accompanied by the Chinese maritime militia—a coordinated civilian force whose existence is not officially acknowledged by China's government.

Standoffs and near misses have intensified around another disputed feature in the Spratlys, Second Thomas Shoal, where a deliberately ground Philippine Navy warship—still in active service—could become a major flashpoint involving Beijing's forces and those of Manila's long-time treaty ally, the United States.

The Philippine Coast Guard first observed 111 Chinese maritime militia ships "swarming" the waters around Whitsun on November 13, according to its spokesperson, Commodore Jay Tarriela.

That number rose to an estimated 135 Chinese ships by the weekend, Tarriela said in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Sunday.

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Gen. Eduardo Ano, who chairs a task force overseeing the Philippines armed forces' response in the western part of the South China Sea, sent a coast guard patrol to "challenge and document the illegal presence of the [Chinese maritime militia]," Tarriela said.

On Saturday, a pair of Philippine coast guard vessels, the BRP Sindangan and BRP Cabra, arrived at the reef, but the Chinese ships ignored their "radio challenges," the spokesperson said.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin described Whitsun as China's territory and "an important area where Chinese fishing boats operate and seek shelter."

"It is reasonable for Chinese fishing vessels to operate and shelter in the area," Wang said.

China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight project at Stanford University, said on X on Sunday that the Chinese ships appeared to be "rafted" together, a type of formation he said was typical of China's militia fleet.

Rafting is a "gray zone tactic of tying ships together at anchor to establish semi-persistent floating outposts that are difficult disperse due to their collective mass," Stanford analyst Gaute Friis said in a July report for SeaLight.

Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., said on X that the Chinese boats had "pristine decks," indicating the vessels "probably haven't fished a day of their lives."

China's maritime militia crews are sometimes equipped with small arms, but their main task is harassment and occupation in disputed waters.

A mass of such ships was last seen at Whitsun in spring 2021, when more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels were moored there, drawing complaints from the Philippines and Vietnam, which also lays claim to the area. Chinese officials said the ships were taking shelter from rough conditions.

Over a fifth of global trade passes through the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea each year, according to a 2016 estimate by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.

The Chinese government asserts sovereign rights to vast maritime zones in the area via territorial claims within its so-called dashed line, putting it into disputes with smaller neighbors including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

An international tribunal in The Hague rejected Beijing's sweeping claims in the 2016 ruling of Philippines v. China, which the latter refused to take part in and has disregarded ever since.

The Philippine Coast Guard "maintains its unwavering commitment to safeguarding maritime security, safety and the marine environment in the course of protecting the territorial integrity, sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea in accordance with international laws including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 2016 Arbitral Award and Philippine domestic laws," the agency said in a statement on Sunday.