Philippines says China 'biggest disruptor' of peace in Southeast Asia

Philippines says China 'biggest disruptor' of peace in Southeast Asia
by AFP Staff Writers
Manila (AFP) Aug 27, 2024

China is the "biggest disruptor" of peace in Southeast Asia, the Philippine defence chief said Tuesday, as tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed reefs and waters in the South China Sea escalate.

Gilberto Teodoro made the remarks at a conference of the US Indo-Pacific Command after repeated confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the waterway over the past 12 months.

Beijing claims almost the entirety of the sea, brushing aside rival claims by other countries, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis.

China's claims include reefs and waters inside the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends about 370 kilometres (200 nautical miles) from the country's coastal waters.

"China... is the biggest disruptor of international peace in the ASEAN region," Teodoro said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims.

Speaking to reporters, Teodoro urged other countries to call out China's "illegal acts" until it yields to pressure to stop its actions.

"We need a collective consensus and a strong call out against China," said Teodoro.

"We are struggling against a more powerful adversary."

His comments come a day after China said it took "control measures" against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that had entered waters near Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

The Philippine Coast Guard had sent two vessels to deliver provisions to one of its ships at the reef.

They were forced to abandon the mission due to China's "excessive" deployment of ships and rough sea conditions, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for Manila's coast guard, told AFP on Monday.

Several confrontations have taken place in recent days around Sabina Shoal, located 140 kilometres (86 miles) west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometres from Hainan island, China's nearest major landmass.

Both sides have stationed coast guard vessels at the shoal in recent months. Manila fears Beijing is about to build an artificial island.

Relations between the countries have frayed as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos's administration stands up to Chinese actions in the contested waters.

In June, the Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in a confrontation in which Beijing's coast guard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns near Second Thomas Shoal, also in the Spratlys.

Top White House official due in Beijing as China faces off against US allies
Beijing (AFP) Aug 27, 2024 - US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was due in Beijing Tuesday to meet top diplomat Wang Yi for tense talks as China was embroiled in security rows with key American allies Japan and the Philippines.

On Monday, US treaty ally Japan scrambled fighters after a Chinese military aircraft "violated" its airspace, with Tokyo later accusing Beijing of a "serious violation" of its sovereignty.

The Philippine defence chief on Tuesday accused Beijing of being the "biggest disruptor" of peace in Southeast Asia following a week of confrontations between the two countries' ships near a flashpoint, disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Ahead of Sullivan's trip -- the first by a US national security advisor to China since 2016 -- an American official said he would discuss the South China Sea with counterparts in Beijing, including foreign minister Wang.

She did not indicate that the United States expected breakthroughs on the trip.

"We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps on tech and national security that we need to take," the official said, referring to sweeping restrictions on US technology transfers to China imposed under President Joe Biden.

"We are committed to managing this competition responsibly... and preventing it from veering into conflict," she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

She said the US would press China on its mounting "military, diplomatic and economic pressure" on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy that Beijing considers its territory and has not ruled out reunifying through force.

China has kept up its sabre-rattling since the inauguration this year of President Lai Ching-te, whose party emphasises Taiwan's separate identity.

"These activities are destabilising, risk escalation, and we're going to continue to urge Beijing to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taipei," she said.

And he will reiterate US concerns about China's support for Russia in its major expansion of its defence industry since the Ukraine invasion.

Beijing counters that, unlike the United States, it does not directly give weapons to either side.

China has historically been eager to work with US national security advisors, seeing them as decision-makers close to the president who can negotiate away from the media spotlight that comes with the secretary of state or top leadership.

The modern US-China relationship was launched when Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor to Richard Nixon, secretly visited Beijing in 1971 to lay the groundwork for the normalisation of relations with the communist state.

Sullivan and Wang have met four times over the last year and a half -- once in Washington and the other times in Vienna, Malta and Bangkok -- as well as alongside Biden and President Xi Jinping at their November summit in California.

The meetings between Wang and Sullivan were sometimes announced only after they concluded and the two had spent long hours together behind closed doors.

Sullivan's visit comes months ahead of US elections in November.