South China Sea: Chinese coastguard says it led ‘normalised’ safety training at contested Scarborough Shoal
According to former US Air Force official Ray Powell on Monday, China is sending a “huge force to blockade Scarborough Shoal,” ahead of Atin Ito, a civilian convoy setting sail from the Philippines on Tuesday.
“By this time tomorrow at least four coastguard and 26 large maritime militia ships [will be] on blockade,” Powell posted on X.
“This will be by far the largest blockade I’ll have ever tracked at Scarborough. China seems determined to aggressively enforce its claim over the shoal.”
Atin Ito is a civilian-led supply mission to the Philippine maritime claims in the South China Sea, especially Scarborough Shoal, which its co-convenor Rafaela David describes as a “legitimate exercise of Filipino citizens’ right to movement within our own territory”.
Both China and the Philippines lay claim to Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground in the middle of the South China Sea. The shoal is around 220km (120 nautical miles) west of the Philippine island of Luzon and about 1,000km (590 nautical miles) east of China’s Hainan Island.
China’s sweeping claims to the resource-rich waterway are also contested by Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
The drill comes amid increasing confrontations between China and the Philippines over the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
Last week, Manila’s national security adviser Eduardo Ano called for Chinese diplomats to be expelled over an alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral, who reportedly agreed to Beijing’s proposal of a “new model” for managing the South China Sea dispute.
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Last month, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said Philippine vessels had been damaged by China Coast Guard ships near Scarborough Shoal, which he said was “evidence of the forceful water pressure used by the China Coast Guard in their harassment of the Philippine vessels”.
On Saturday, the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command said China’s navy recently carried out anti-missile and anti-submarine drills with its destroyers in the South China Sea, following the end of the annual Balikatan military exercise between the US and the Philippines that ran for nearly a month, ending on Friday.