By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

 

Part 23: Where Brawner see War, China sees Diplomacy

On August 11, Philippine coast guard ship BRP Suluan, in violation of the principle of innocent passage, trespassed into the territorial sea of Scarborough Shoal, an area under the de facto sovereignty of China since July 2012 under the principle of effective control under customary international law.

Two Chinese vessels, a naval destroyer and a coast guard ship, chased BRP Suluan. But in the process, the Philippine ship violated International Collision Regulations when it executed a maneuver kill causing the CCG corvette to collide with the PLA Navy. The PCG confirmed that the location was at “0830H 11 August 2025 at Lat 15 degrees 02.817′ N, Long 118 degrees 11.334′ E or at vicinity 10.5 NM ESE off Bajo De Masinloc (BDM).” or 1.5 nautical miles still within the 12 nm of Scarborough’s territorial sea.

The incident, which has not been officially acknowledged by Chinese state media, allegedly resulted in the death of two Chinese mariners and dealt a 10-meter-deep damage to the bow of the CCG vessel.

Chinese experts have reportedly blamed the Philippines for the collision, asserting that Manila should cover the costs of the unspecified damages.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro has firmly rejected the demand. In a statement released through Malacañang, Secretary Lazaro stated, “The Philippines bears no responsibility for the collision between the PLAN vessel and the CCG vessel in Bajo de Masinloc. It was an unfortunate outcome, but not one caused by our actions.”

The call for reparations from China was seen likely to further strain relations between Manila and Beijing.

Taiwan rhetoric

Sixteen days after, on August 27, Bloomberg reported that Taiwan’s foreign minister Lin Chia-lung visited the Philippines as part of US-Taiwan Economic Council, meeting with certain Philippine officials.

In a hearing in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Imee Marcos confronted Secretary Theresa Lazaro about this report. The Department of Foreign Affairs chief said she had no official knowledge of the protocol violation but requested for an executive session to explain details.

            As a result, after two days China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strongly-worded response:

“The Philippines has provided a platform for “Taiwan independence” separatists to engage in anti-China activities, and has severely violated the basic norms in international relations and the Philippines’ own commitment on Taiwan-related issues. Over the past weeks and months, the Philippines has taken a series of wrong and provocative moves on Taiwan-related issues, and kept fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle and hurting China-Philippines ties. This once again reflects the serious lack of credibility of the Philippine government.”

China’s spokesman correctly pointed out that this is not an isolated case: Indeed, the build up started from April 1 when Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, was caught on video telling troops to prepare themselves for an invasion of Taiwan, climaxed with Firstpost managing editor Palki Sharma’s interview of Philippine President while visiting India, as recent as August 6, where Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said:  “To be very practical about it, if there is a confrontation over Taiwan between China and the United States, there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it, simply because of our physical geographic location.”

China urged the Philippines to abide by the one-China principle and the joint communiqué on establishing diplomatic ties between China and the Philippines, stop pursuing the wrong course and return to the right track at once, stop playing with fire on issues concerning China’s core interests, and stop sending any wrong signals to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.

But at the end, it issued a stern warning,

The Philippines must not underestimate the firm resolve of the Chinese people to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity. There is a price to pay for trampling on China’s red line, and all consequences arising therefrom will be borne by the Philippines.

(Last December, China sanctioned 7 companies over US military assistance to Taiwan, namely Insitu Inc., Hudson Technologies Co., Saronic Technologies, Inc., Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Aerkomm Inc. and Oceaneering International Inc.)

Teodoro racist remarks

On September 3, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro reacted to China’s “price-to-pay” idiom and said that its so-called “red line” was only applicable within Chinese territory and should not be imposed on the Philippines which is a free, independent country.

The defense secretary said China was using the Philippines, to gaslighting pinning Taiwan under the “One China Policy: “Yan (ay)propaganda ng China.” (That is Chinese propaganda.) “Yan ginagamit nila upang huwag tayong tumayo kasama ng ating mga kaalyado na tutulan ang ginagawa nila sa West Philippine Sea at ang pagsakop nila sa nine-dash line.” (They use that to prevent us from standing with our allies in the West Philippine Sea against their invasion inside their nine dash line.)

            If Marcos were sober, he would leave the talking to Lazaro and gag the defense chief who is the last person qualified to comment in any way about another country.

            Teodoro who has recently been exposed to be a citizen of Malta, has not shown any proof to the public that the foreign country has accepted and approved his renunciation of his Maltese citizenship and passport, and that the Bureau Immigration has accepted his evidences and approved the reacquisition of his Filipino citizenship.

            On May 9, before the 2025 midterm ballot, he not only falsely accused China of meddling in our elections he also but did so in racist manner, “Yan kasi nasa DNA nila.” (It’s in their DNA.) The secretary said this during the closing of Balikatan Exercises at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, obviously sucking up to the American dignitaries and troops who were in attendance.

            On August 1, axing racist again, Teodoro claimed that “A major part for our national interest is to resist the Chinese claims.”

If this is our foreign policy, then this represents not just a violation of our Constitutional tenets on independent foreign policy as South China Sea issues do not encompass the totality of our relations with China, but a dangerous path to war that echoes the propaganda of the United States.

            China responds “the reason some Philippine officials repeatedly make statements that distort and attack China’s position is, more likely, an attempt to escalate tensions between the two countries and mislead the international community. Such actions corroborate that the Philippines is a genuine troublemaker and a creator of danger in the South China Sea.”

The Philippine leadership must stop spreading false information and engaging in political theatrics, and instead do more to promote bilateral relations and in the interest of peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Prognosis onto reality

            Asked in a peace forum we had in Manila, as to “what price we have to pay” after the collision in Scarborough and breaching China’s red line violation on Taiwan, I forwarded four options or a combination thereof:

• As a minimum, calibrate economic sanctions like reduction of imports.
• Pull out the mired BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal.
• Proceed with its postponed planned installations at Scarborough Shoal.
• As a maximum, pursue a no exception enforcement of innocent passage in the South China Seas, to the extreme of declaring the entire area as an Air (and Naval) Defense Identification Zone.

Thus, I was not surprised when last September 10, the Associated Press announced that Beijing has approved the establishment of a national nature reserve at Scarborough Shoal, with a notice posted online by China’s State Council saying that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

AP further reported that the building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of the Shoal.

This idea is no longer novel.

With no Philippine dogs barking, Vietnam has expanded its island-building efforts since the start of this year, to eight features previously untouched by the current round of reclamation that Hanoi began in 2021. Recent satellite imagery shows that Vietnam has undertaken dredging and landfill work at Alison Reef, Collins Reef, East Reef, Landsdowne Reef, and Petley Reef, all of which had previously housed only small concrete pillbox structures. New expansion has also begun at three features that already hosted medium-sized artificial islands by virtue of earlier rounds of Vietnamese dredging: Amboyna Cay, Grierson Reef, and West Reef.

Starting in 2013, in retaliation against the Philippines registering a case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, China has reclaimed and fortified at least seven major artificial islands in the Spratlys, creating military-ready outposts with runways, harbors, and defensive system in the following reefs – Subi, Fiery Cross, Mischief, Gaven, Huges, Johnson and Cuarteron.

It was President Rodrigo Duterte that stopped China’s reclamation of more features in the South China Seas, specifically its expansion to Scarborough Shoal.

Last May 2017, after meeting Xi Jinping in Beijing on the sidelines of an international summit, Duterte told the Chinese president that the Philippines was going to drill for oil in a disputed part of the South China Sea, the latter’s response was “We’re friends, we don’t want to quarrel with you, we want to maintain the presence of warm relationship, but if you force the issue, we’ll go to war.”

Duterte also recalled that when former Vice-President Salvador Laurel visited China in June 1986, Xi’s predecessor Deng Xiaoping’s advice was “This issue can be shelved for now… We shall not let this issue stand in the way of our friendly relations with the Philippines and with other countries.” 

Premier Deng’s reason for his principle of “shelving differences and seeking joint development” is that “Our generation may not have enough wisdom to resolve it, but the next generation will probably have more wisdom than us and be able to resolve this issue.”

Subsequently, Duterte pursued an independent foreign policy, balancing our relations between war-mongering United States, a declining power, and China, a bursting economy, the ascending power.

Not only was it constitutionally-sound, it was commonsensically progressive.

A wisdom we do not enjoy today. #

To be continued.

Part 24: China approves National Nature Reserve @Scarborough Shoal

   

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