55 Chinese vessels monitored in WPS features –PH Navy

A total of 55 Chinese vessels were monitored in different features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the Philippine Navy said on Tuesday.

Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad said the following Chinese vessels were spotted in the following areas:

• Bajo de Masinloc – two Chinese Coast Guard vessels, 24 Chinese maritime militia vessels
• Ayungin Shoal – one Chinese Coast Guard vessel, five Chinese fishing vessels 
• Pagasa Island – one Chinese Coast Guard vessel, 19 Chinese maritime militia vessels
• Panata Island – two Chinese maritime militia vessels
• Lawak Island – one People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel

So far, the Chinese vessels did not perform aggressive actions, according to Trinidad.

“Their activities have been varied, some of them would be lying to or stationary, others would be moving, doing patrols,” Trinidad said in a press conference.

Amid activities with the United States in the WPS, Trinidad pointed out that China’s actions depend on the presence of the US in the area.

“China’s activities are always dependent on the absence of a power, the US, this has encroached into the EEZ of countries bordering the South China Sea,” Trinidad said.

Trinidad said this was based on China’s previous actions not only in the Philippines but also in Vietnam

“If you look at the actions of China, they come in whenever there is a vacuum. So looking at the history, pullout of foreign forces from Vietnam, they came in. Pullout of the US forces from the Philippines, they came in,” he said.

“We started noticing their markers in 1992, 1993. They prevented our gray ships from entering Mischief reef, in 1995 they established fishermen’s shelter they said it would be for maritime research, eventually they made them military bases, they militarized the area,” he added.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have heightened in recent months as both sides trade accusations over a series of incidents in the WPS.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its territorial claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Parts of the waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone have been renamed as West Philippine Sea.

In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected. —VAL, GMA Integrated News