China backtracks on Panatag plan

BEIJING — China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday denied reports that China would begin preparatory work this year for an environmental monitoring station on disputed Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

The official Hainan Daily on Friday quoted the top official in Sansha City that administered China’s island claims in the South China Sea as saying preparations were under way for the construction of environmental monitoring stations on six of the islands, including Panatag Shoal (international name: Scarborough Shoal).

Not true

Sansha Communist Party Secretary Xiao Jie, the mayor of Sansha City, told the paper that the preparatory work on the stations was among the Chinese government’s priorities for 2017, but he gave no other details.

On Wednesday, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, denied the report.

“China places great importance on the preservation of the South China Sea’s ocean ecology, this is certain,” Hua told a daily news briefing in Beijing.

“According to the relevant bodies in China, the reports you mention that touch upon building environmental monitoring stations on Scarborough Shoal are mistaken, these things are not true,” she added.

“With regard to Scarborough Shoal, China’s position is consistent and clear. We place great importance on China-Philippines relations,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, acting Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo of the Philippines told Filipino reporters in Bangkok, which President Duterte is visiting, that Manila had asked Beijing to clarify its reported plans to build on Panatag Shoal.

“I think the President has been very clear—we want to have a peaceful, diplomatic settlement of disputes but we will not fail to protect our national interests if necessary,” Manalo said.

Asked if a diplomatic protest would be filed, Manalo said the Philippines would wait for China’s reply.

In Manila, Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said a note verbale—an unsigned diplomatic communication written in the third person—was handed to the Chinese government on Tuesday.

“Basically, we are asking China to confirm the report,” Jose said.

He explained that the statement about construction on Panatag Shoal came from a local official in China and needed to be validated.

Located 230 kilometers off the coast of Zambales province, well within the 370-km exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines known as West Philippine Sea, Panatag Shoal is at the heart of a territorial dispute between the two countries.

China seized Panatag after a two-month standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012, then blocked Filipinos from fishing in the shoal.

Arbitral ruling

The Philippines brought its dispute with China to international arbitration the following year, but China ignored the complaints and the tribunal’s ruling, which declared Beijing’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea had no legal basis and that it had violated the Philippines’ rights to fish and explore for resources in waters within its EEZ.

Since taking office in June last year, Mr. Duterte has put the territorial dispute with China on the back burner and reached out to Beijing in an effort to revive trade and seek Chinese economic aid.

China has since allowed Filipinos to return to Panatag Shoal to fish.

Asked by reporters for comment on China’s reported plan to build on Panatag Shoal on Sunday before leaving for Burma (Myanmar) for an official visit, Mr. Duterte said he could not stop it because China was a military power.

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, part of the legal team that successfully argued the Philippine case in the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last year, suggested that the Philippines file a strong protest against China’s plan.

But in Beijing on Wednesday, Hua reiterated China’s desire for good relations with the Philippines.

China will “cherish the good momentum of the bilateral relationship and will be committed to pushing forward the sound, steady and rapid growth of the relationship,” Hua said.

In Bangkok, Mr. Duterte said he and Thai Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha had agreed to work toward maintaining peace and stability in the region.

He said he and Prayut had agreed to press for the completion of the framework for a code of conduct for claimants in the South China Sea this year. —REPORTS FROM WIRES, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE IN MANILA, AND NESTOR CORRALES IN BANGKOK