92 China ships now in Panatag Shoal; tensions up

3:19 am | Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Scarborough Shoal

There are now 92 Chinese ships at Panatag.

The Philippines accused China on Wednesday of flaring tensions anew by sending more government and fishing vessels to Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal despite ongoing talks to resolve the two-month-old standoff.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Raul Hernandez said the number of Chinese vessels at Scarborough Shoal increased to 92 from 77 on Tuesday. They included four government ships and fishing and utility boats.

Hernandez said the Philippines had only two vessels in the area, which both countries claim.

Hernandez said the DFA handed Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing a diplomatic note on Monday to protest the presence on that day of 77 Chinese vessels—five government ships, 16 fishing boats and 56 dinghies used to load fish or corals.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hong Lei, on Wednesday said that nearly 100 Chinese boats or dinghies arrived at the shoal.

“The Philippine side has recently taken some provocative actions in the Huangyan Island waters, thus the Chinese side has adopted corresponding measures to strengthen management and control,” Hong said, using China’s name for Scarborough Shoal.

“To our knowledge, now there are about 20 Chinese fishing boats working in that area. This number is roughly the same with that in the same period of the previous years,” Hong said.

“The way these fishing boats are working complies with the related Chinese laws and the fishing moratorium issued by the Chinese government,” he added.

Hernandez said that despite China’s fishing ban, Chinese vessels were observed fishing and collecting protected corals at the shoal.

The Philippines has separately imposed its own ban on fishing in the area.

Seventh protest

Hernandez said the Philippines had filed a seventh diplomatic protest because of China’s sending more vessels to the shoal despite ongoing talks to resolve the dispute.

He said that at around 7 p.m. on Monday, there were five Chinese government vessels (CMS 71, CMS 84, FLEC 301, 303 and 310) in the area, which were accompanied by 16 fishing boats (10 inside the lagoon and six outside), and 56 utility boats (27 inside the lagoon and 29 outside).

“Yesterday (Tuesday), there were still 16 Chinese fishing vessels and the number of utility boats went up to 76,” Hernandez said

He explained that utility boats were dinghies that helped the fishing boats collect their harvest of giant clams and corals by dredging.

Pullout demanded

Manila demanded an immediate pullout of the vessels, saying they violate Philippine sovereignty and a nonbinding Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea signed by China and Southeast Asian Countries.

“It is regrettable that these actions occurred at a time when China has been articulating for a deescalation of tensions and while the two sides have been discussing how to defuse the situation in the area,” Hernandez added.

Both sides claim the uninhabited, horseshoe-shaped shoal, which is 230 kilometers (124 nautical miles) from Zambales province, the nearest Philippine coast.

Hernandez said the Philippines remained committed to defusing the tensions in the area.

He said Assistant Foreign Secretary for Asia-Pacific Affairs Teresa Lazaro and Ambassador Ma were discussing the dispute in Manila while similar talks were going on in Beijing.

The Philippines is also taking the dispute to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (Itlos), but China rejects international arbitration.

China also opposes the intervention of other countries in its territorial dispute with the Philippines.

“The Philippines’ attempt to draw any third party into interfering or intervening through whatever means in the incident is bound to further escalate the situation or even change the nature of the issue and will meet steadfast opposition from the Chinese side,” Hong said.

Hong was referring to Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario’s earlier statement that some countries were helping the Philippines establish a “minimum credible defense posture” by providing the country with patrol boats and military aircraft to complement its diplomatic initiative in dealing with China.

According to Hong, “the Chinese side has been actively engaged in diplomatic consultation to urge the Philippine side to correct its wrongdoing and ease the situation, for the sake of normal growth of bilateral relations.”

“China’s principles and stance over the Huangyan Island issue are clear-cut,” Hong said. “Huangyan Island has always been China’s territory, and China possesses indisputable sovereignty over the island. The Philippine side should concretely respect China’s territorial sovereignty. At the same time, China’s position of committing to diplomatic consultation to address the current situation remains unchanged.”

Hernandez said “the plan [to establish a minimum credible defense posture] has been there for a long time.”

“We have to substantiate our diplomatic capacity with a minimum credible defense posture … that is what we’re doing. We are trying to upgrade or modernize our military which has been neglected for several years,” Hernandez said.

Help from Japan, Korea

Del Rosario earlier said that Japan would likely provide the country with 10 40-meter patrol boats under its official development aid and two larger ones as grants.

He said South Korea had provided the Armed Forces of the Philippines equipment, such as vests and helmets, under a logistics agreement. “I understand our defense department is looking to possibly purchase aircraft from there,” Del Rosario said.

In November last year, President Benigno Aquino III asked visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for aircraft, patrol boats and other hardware to help boost the Philippines’ military capability amid tensions with China on the Spratly islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Lee’s response was not disclosed, but he said Seoul wanted to help Manila resolve its maritime problems.

Del Rosario said the Philippines could expect to receive from Australia “a number of vessels for search and rescue, as well as significant training here and abroad for large numbers of our military” when a status of visiting forces agreement between the two countries is ratified this week.

Earlier, the military announced it would be getting a second Hamilton-class cutter from the United States.

Del Rosario has repeatedly said the country was determined to “improve our national defense by building a minimum credible defense posture.”

He said that this year, the Philippines would receive $144.66 million (about P6.25 billion) in defense assistance from the United States.

He also said he had secured US funding for a $53-million (about P2.3 billion) radar system for the Philippine Coast Guard.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila admitted that the People’s Liberation Army recently conducted a “regular training program” in the “West Pacific waters.”

Citing the Information Office of China’s Ministry of Defense, the embassy said, “The recent drill by a naval fleet of China’s People’s Liberation Army in the West Pacific waters is a regular training program included in its annual plan, not aimed at any particular country or target.” With a report from AP

Recent Stories:

Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Tags: China , DFA , Foreign affairs , International relations , Maritime Dispute , National Defense , Panatag Shoal , Philippines

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AYITA5V33GYZSLC3G37UCVNTKA Ben

I will continue to send emails to the US congressmen and senators to continue to thwart the Chinese ambition to rule the world and I think the legislators are finally getting alarmed of China`s unfair practices, the US and her allies should band together through free trade and by strengthening their anti-dumping law against China`s products that support her military`s modernization, etc.

Mario_Garcia

You are provoking China, you’ll never know, that after pressures from you and the US, China might decide to rule the world and it surely has the potential. Beware of what you wish for.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AYITA5V33GYZSLC3G37UCVNTKA Ben

Mario, only a naive person who thinks China can rule the world. I don`t buy it, the US can open multiple war fronts in China`s backyard, it also has the so called MX missile that can obliterate China as a whole if needed be…and I am not afraid if China shows her true intention to rule the world, while the world continue to have a united nations with allies more than China, I don`t think your suggestion is even going to happen…not yet in my lifetime.
Mario_Garcia

Yes the US has the capability, but you should consider that China has potential that we do not know of yet. When a shooting war breaks out, Manila is a sure target by the Chinese, that is why I want to suggest that we don’t provoke any of them to start a war. We’ve seen what wars can bring to people in our history books and surely you will agree with me that war should not happen again even beyond our lifetime. Happy reincarnation!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AYITA5V33GYZSLC3G37UCVNTKA Ben

I know what China has, human resource other than that, limited, no wonder they are trying very hard to to claim the whole South China sea because of the natural resources it has. China has a limited resources in its lands, most of their raw materials are imported, the same goes with Japan thats why they invaded most of Asia to support their economic expansion which their lands can`t give. Unlike the US .

Let me outline the basic ingredients of the US, and why they will continue to be resilient.

1) Its resources- I`ll give you an example to reduce their Oil import, they started to mine their shale oil through hydraulic fracking making them less affected by oil swing…China does not have that resource, thats why they are eyeing the China sea to supply their ever growing industries, reduce their oil import and you contract their economy, that`s one weakness in their country, no wonder they are dependent on others for export.

2) The 2nd ingredient is the US labor. -which converts natural resources into goods. In China, they convert others countries natural resources into goods, without those China has nothing. The number of available workers and, more importantly, their productivity help determine the health of an economy. And considering the US is 500million people only with an average per capita income of $70,000.00, and China has 1.5 billion with an average of $4,000.00 purchasing power(ho humm) still considered developing, and they acknowledge it.

Throughout its history, the United States has experienced steady growth in the labor force, and that, in turn, has helped fuel almost constant economic expansion. Until shortly after World War I, most workers were immigrants from Europe, their immediate descendants, or African-Americans whose ancestors were brought to the Americas as slaves. In the early years of the 20th century, large numbers of Asians immigrated to the United States, while many Latin American
immigrants came in later years. Although the United
States has experienced cyclical of high unemployment and other times when labor was in short supply, immigrants tended to come when jobs were plentiful.

Often willing to work for somewhat lower wages than acculturated workers, they generally prospered, earning far more than they would have in their native lands. The nation prospered as well, so that the economy grew fast enough to
absorb even more newcomers.

The quality of available labor — how hard people are willing to work and how skilled they are — is at least as important to a country’s economic success as the number of workers. In
the early days of the United States, frontier life required hard work, and what is known as the Protestant work ethic reinforced that trait. A strong emphasis on education, including technical and vocational training, also contributed to
America’s economic success, as did a willingness to experiment and to change.

If China will become a democratic society, then it can prosper. given the figures right now, their economy is slowly losing steam, and the savings of the government from export is slowly getting reduced and becoming indebted to subsidized their states and infrastructure works, the world does not have to choke it, it will choke itself. No wonder, they grow like a cancer trying to feed on others resources like a parasite; depending on the available resources of others, eventually they will die down unable to support their own expansion. That is why they must rely on others (world) for the raw materials to create the goods that they export at low low prices since they can afford to manipualte their currency, as their people have no basic rights anyway and can`t complain for their individual goal, always for the collective…or better yet for the Chinese communists politburo.

The South China sea once dried out of resources such as oil and fish, China like a cancer will fall back because it will be expensive to maintain a vast sea territory that is continually being challenged by others far from their main land.

And yes, its like starting WW3 if they ever attack the Philippine mainland, so only a naive thinking will fall for that. We have a MDT with the US and others, and the US has MDT with the rest of the world and can call for a coalition of forces…while China has none, China will never attempt to give itself a headache whe she knows she will never ready to face the world in a shooting war.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Dela-Cruz/100003052998714 Andrew Dela Cruz

binabaligtad ng china ang totoong pangyayari!!

92 China ships now in Panatag Shoal; tensions up

News

Sports

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Business

Technology

Opinion

Global Nation