Water Wars: Chinese Maritime Militia Disperses Amid Political Standoff With the Philippines and the United States

The captain and the executive officer of the USS Mustin (DDG 89) observe Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning (CV 16) in the Philippine Sea on April 4. (Source: U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Arthur Rosen.) A political standoff between China and the Philippines over a reef in the South China Sea has begun to subside, while Taiwan reacts to a new normal of continuous Chinese military activity around the island nation. In the background of both developments, the Biden administration is coordinating with its treaty allies—the Philippines and Japan—to confront an aggressive maritime posture from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Spratlys in the Gray Zone On April 8, a China Coast Guard vessel and two Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Type-22 Houbei missile boats chased Philippine ABS-CBN journalists out of the Spratly Islands (Malay: Kepulauan Spratly; Mandarin: Nansha Qundao; Philippines: Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; Vietnamese: Quần đảo Trường Sa). The news team was in a civilian motor boat en route to Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal (Mandarin: Ren'ai Jiao; Tagalog: Ayungin Shoal; Vietnamese: Bãi Cỏ Mây) in the Spratlys. The journalists maintain that they were about to reach Second Thomas Shoal and were well within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines when the PRC vessels arrived. An hour-long chase ensued. The China Coast Guard vessel turned away when the news crew was around 80 nautical miles from the Philippines’ mainland Palawan island, only to be replaced by two PLA Navy Houbeis. Second Thomas Shoal is home to the intentionally grounded Philippine vessel Sierra Madre and lies about 20 nautical miles east of Chinese-occupied Mischief Reef (Chinese: Meiji Jiao; Tagalog: Panganiban; Vietnamese: Đá Vành Khăn). There are no PRC-occupied features between Second Thomas Shoal and Palawan, suggesting that the PRC vessels traveled east from Mischief Reef to intercept the news team between the shoal and the Philippine mainland. ABS-CBN posted videos of the incident on YouTube, with further Philippine media coverage on Twitter . The incident occured during a tense period between the Philippines and China in the Spratlys. Between December 2020 and March 2021, a buildup of approximately 220 Chinese fishing boats and People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia vessels congregated around Whitsun Reef (Mandarin: Niu’e Jiao; Tagalog: Julian Felipe Reef; Vietnamese: Đá Ba Đầu;). Whitsun is an unoccupied low-tide elevation in the larger reef formation of Union Banks, about 170 nautical miles west of Palawan. The Philippines, the PRC and Vietnam all claim Whitsun Reef. The reef is also in a geostrategic location of the Spratlys, lying between PRC military facilities on Fiery Cross (Mandarin: Yongshu Jiao; Tagalog: Kagitingan; Vietnamese: Đá Chữ Thập) and Mischief Reefs. Videos of the Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef depict commercial-sized “fishing” ships—some around 200-feet long—anchored in calm seas. Reports from the Philippine government and media described the number of vessels steadily in March, sparking fears of impending PRC reclamation activity in the Spratlys. Both U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan publicly expressed their concerns about the PRC actions toward the end of March. A retired U.S. Navy captain characterized PRC actions at Whitsun Reef as “a test of the Biden administration.” On the day of the ABS-CBN chase, Blinken spoke with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. According to the U.S. State Department’s published readout , the countries expressed their “shared concerns with the massing of PRC maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea, including at Whitsun Reef, and reiterated their calls on the PRC to abide by the 2016 arbitration ruling issued pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention.” Blinken also reaffirmed that the 1951 U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the South China Sea. On April 10, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Philippine counterpart to reaffirm their nations’ alliance and to discuss “the recent massing of People’s Republic of China maritime militia vessels at Whitsun Reef.” The high-level attention to this low-tide elevation appears to have paid off for the Philippines. The number of Chinese vessels at the reef dropped to 44 on March 31 and nine on April 13, as the vessels dispersed throughout the South China Sea. Still, on April 13, the Philippine government summoned the Chinese ambassador to tell Beijing to remove the remaining vessels at Whitsun and announced that the Philippines would deploy another Philippine Coast Guard cutter and four Philippine Navy vessels to its claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines has also filed multiple diplomatic protests against the PRC in recent weeks, claiming that the Chinese vessels are “fishing everything in the water that belongs by law to [the Philippines].” The PRC Embassy in Manila has countered that there has been “no Chinese Maritime Militia as alleged” at Whitsun and that the vessels were taking shelter due to “rough sea conditions.” The Philippines noted that the region has experienced weeks of “clear weather.” The PRC “ gray-zone ” strategy—coercive force short of war—of using fishing boats and Chinese military militia to occupy reefs may be “unprecedented in scale and notable for its duration,” but it is still reminiscent of past PRC actions in the South China Sea. Most notably, in 2012, the PRC seized Scarborough Shoal (Mandarin: Huangyan Dao; Tagalog: Panatag) from de facto Philippine control after a Philippine warship failed to evict Chinese fishing boats anchored inside the shoal, 190 nautical miles west of Manila. In the ensuing standoff and a U.S.-brokered agreement, the Philippines withdrew its vessels before typhoon season arrived, but the PRC ships never left. The China Coast Guard continues to deny Philippine fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal. The U.S. and Chinese navies have also increased their presence in the South China Sea amid the tension. On April 9, the U.S. Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group conducted a joint exercise as an Expeditionary Strike Force in the South China Sea. A day later, the Liaoning Carrier Strike Group entered the South China Sea through the Luzon Strait. Taiwan’s New Normal Military Shows of Force Just north of the Philippines, Taiwan also faces an increased PRC military presence. The Liaoning Carrier Strike Group sailed east of Taiwan through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa on April 4. The PLA forces then conducted naval drills near Taiwan, days before entering the South China Sea. For the first time ever, a PLAN Type 055 Renhai-class stealth-guided missile destroyer escorted the Liaoning. The Type 055 destroyer is equipped with 112 vertical launch missile cells, double that of the Type 052D Luyang III-class destroyers. A PLA Navy statement promised that such naval exercises near Taiwan will continue to occur “on a regular basis.” The PLA naval exercises, in conjunction with daily PRC military aircraft incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), constitute a new normal for Taiwan. As covered previously, PLA aircraft began regularly crossing the “median line” separating the mainland from Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait in March 2019, before conducting near-daily incursions into Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ in 2020. Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense has accused the PRC of using military exercises and gray-zone tactics to wear down Taiwanese forces. The recent Liaoning exercises prompted Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to say that Taiwan would “fight a war if we need to fight a war, and if we need to defend ourselves to the very last day, then we will defend ourselves to the very last day.“ During the Liaoning Carrier Strike Group exercises, the USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) transited the Taiwan Strait—the fourth Taiwan Strait transit by a U.S. destroyer during the Biden administration. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman blamed U.S. ships for the “provocations” and rhetorically questioned if “a Chinese warship [would] go to the Gulf of Mexico to make a show of strength.” Such a transit, like the John S. McCain’s, would be lawful. Article 87 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows for high seas transits of warships, and Article 17 provides for “innocent passage” through the territorial seas of another coastal state. Indeed, five Chinese warships conducted an innocent passage through U.S. territorial seas near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands in 2015. U.S.-Taiwan Diplomatic Developments The United States is also increasing its diplomatic engagement with Taiwan. On April 9, the U.S. State Department issued relaxed guidelines for U.S. offi
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