PH, China agree to resume talks on WPS disputes this month

Senior Philippine and Chinese diplomats have agreed to resume talks in China this month after a series of confrontations spread to a new scene of active conflict in the West Philippine Sea.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo confirmed when asked by reporters Wednesday night at a diplomatic reception that China will host this month in Beijing the next round of Bilateral Consultations Mechanism, or BCM, where both countries tackle the thorny territorial issues related to the WPS/South China Sea.

China and the Philippines alternately host the BCM talks which started in 2017. The last BCM was held in Manila on July 2.

Manalo did not provide other details but when asked if the BCM talks in Beijing would include the recent Chinese Coast Guard ramming of the Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Teresa Magbanua in Sabina (Escoda) Shoal, he replied, “Hopefully.”

Sabina has emerged as a new site of confrontations between China and the Philippines in the tension-filled waters. The Philippine Coast Guard deployed BRP Teresa Magbanua to Sabina on April 15 after Philippine authorities found crushed corals and other piled debris in the shallows of the uninhabited shoal that they said could be a sign of a Chinese plan to start a construction of a structure in the shoal.

Sabina Shoal is located within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines.

China reacted by deploying coast guard and other vessels to Sabina, including it’s biggest coast guard vessel dubbed a “monster ship” for its size. The “monster ship” has left but several other Chinese ships are now closely guarding the Magbanua, which sustained damages after being rammed by Chinese ships recently.

The Philippines strongly protested China's actions and the United States, Japan, Australia, and other like-minded states deplored the dangerous moves by the Chinese.

As of August 27, the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has filed 176 diplomatic protests against China.

China's increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea prompted serious concerns and condemnations from several countries after China’s coast guard vessels have repeatedly blasted water cannons, used military-grade lasers and blocked Philippine government ships from conducting resupply missions from a shoal, called Ayungin by Manila, that Beijing claims as its own.

Several confrontations between Chinese and Filipino vessels since last year resulted in several injuries from the Philippine side, including one Filipino soldier who lost a thumb in a June 17 incident at the shoal, where several knife and axe-wielding Chinese coast guard personnel blocked, harassed, and attacked Filipino navy while bringing food and other supplies for a small Philippine contingent stationed in Ayungin.

China has also been harassing Philippine vessels and fishermen and installed barriers at the Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, which lies within Manila’s exclusive economic zone under a United Nations maritime convention.

Manila and Beijing in July forged a “provisional arrangement” to deescalate tensions and prevent clashes in the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal, also referred to as Second Thomas Shoal.

Following the arrangement, no confrontation was reported when the Philippines delivered food supplies and other necessities and transported a new batch of navy personnel to Ayungin, where a rusting World War II-era vessel, deliberately grounded by Manila in 1998, serves as a military outpost.

A vital trading and shipping lane, the South China Sea, dotted with rocks, shoals and reefs where rich oil and mineral deposits were found, are claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan. Parts of the waters that fall within Philippine territory have been renamed by the government as West Philippine Sea to reinforce the country’s claim.

China’s vast territorial claims in the waters have sparked tensions and violent confrontations with smaller claimants, like the Philippines and Vietnam.

In July 2016, a The Hague-based tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and declared China's massive and historic claim on the South China Sea illegal and baseless under international law. China refused to recognize the ruling.

Washington has repeatedly declared its “ironclad commitment” to help defend its treaty ally, the Philippines, in case of an armed attack against its forces following repeated and increasingly violent Chinese harassment of Filipino coast guard personnel and troops in the disputed waters. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News