Dozens Of Protesters Swarm Disputed Island As China Demands Withdrawal Of Filipino Troops

Two days ago, an armed Chinese ship and two other vessels entered the waters north of Kuba Island and encroached on Japanese territorial waters starting at around 9:30 a.m. Kuba is part of the Senkakus which are at the center of a longstanding dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.

As BBC wrote last year, “the eight uninhabited islands and rocks in the East China Sea matter because they are close to important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and lie near potential oil and gas reserves.” Perhaps more importantly – especially in the context of what’s going on in the South China Sea – they are “in a strategically significant position, amid rising competition between the US and China for military primacy in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Some argue that Beijing’s move to encroach on what are supposed to be jointly developed oil and gas fields (“I drink your milkshake”) may stem from Japan’s purchase of three of the islands from a private owner in 2012. Saturday’s “incident” marks “the first time that an armed Chinese vessel has intruded into the areas [around the islands] that Japan’s claims as its territory,” Bloomberg writes, adding that although the former PLA vessel “is now operated by another department, the ship was armed with an auto-cannon.” Here’s more: 

The Japanese government protested to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo and to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, according to the foreign affairs ministry official. The entry of the three ships on Saturday was the 139th time that Chinese government vessels have entered Japan’s waters since September 2012, the official said.

When Japan’s coast guard warned the Chinese to leave its territorial waters Saturday, they responded by saying that the Japanese vessel was in Chinese waters and should leave immediately, Kyodo reported.

This comes just ten days after Reuters, citing Japanese officials, reported that Tokyo is preparing a missile blockade along the First Island chain in an effort to, i) deter what the US and Japan say is a regional maritime powergrab by China, and ii) effectively split the ocean into spheres of Chinese and US influence.

All in all, the waters around China and Japan are becoming an increasingly dangerous place and in the latest kerfuffle, 50 Filipinos have occupied Pagasa in the Spratlys to protest Beijing’s island building efforts. The protesters “reached Pagasa in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday, saying they planned to stay for three days [in a demonstration against] Chinese encroachment in a Philippine exclusive economic zone,” BBC says.

The island is Philippine-held, but officials were wary of the trip. “The Philippines was also concerned about China’s reaction to trip as Manila has been trying to calm tensions,” The Sidney Morning Herald wrote, earlier today.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang called on The Philippines to leave the Spratlys altogether. Here’s the quote: 

“We once again urge the Philippines to move out its troops and facilities from the illegally occupied islands and refrain from doing anything that would undermine regional peace and stability and also relations between our two countries.”

You’re reminded that three years ago next month, the Philippines asked the UN Arbitration Court to settle China’s maritime claims over the South China Sea. For its part, Beijing wants nothing to do with the proceedings which China views as illegitimate.

Lu’s declaration in the wake of the Pagasa occupation harkens back to comments made last month by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin. Beijing has actually shown “great restraint” in the South China Sea, Liu told the press ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in Manila.

China, Liu went on to explain, has tolerated the “occupation” of the disputed waters even as Beijing has “both the right and the ability to recover the islands and reefs illegally occupied by neighboring countries.” Essentially, Liu said China would be well within its rights to forcibly expel The Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam from the Spratlys. 

And so, will a peaceful protest by a few dozen students be the indignity that causes China to demand, once and for all, the withdrawal of all non-Chinese military personnel from the Spratlys? Probably not, but Beijing clearly doesn’t appreciate the fact that an island which China believes is sovereign territory is occupied by Filipino soldiers and now, by Filipino activists who are essentially calling the Chinese a belligerent occupying force in the archipelago.