By Raissa Robles
China’s Ambassador to the Philippines has urged Southeast Asian countries to be on guard against US attempts to “sabotage” the region’s stability by inserting itself into the South China Sea disputes. The comments by Huang Xilian follow a hardening of Washington’s position on China’s claims in the sea and come after an op-ed in which his American counterpart, Sung Kim, declared Washington’s support for Manila in the “West Philippines Sea”.
This is the term Manila uses to refer to the portion of the South China Sea it claims as part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and includes areas claimed by Beijing. The use of the term by a US state department official is rare and likely to be seen as provocative in Beijing, which is still smarting from another op-ed written by a US diplomat who accused China of eroding the sovereignty of Myanmar, one of the Philippines’ partners in the bloc of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Observers said the spats were evidence the two superpowers were increasingly jostling for influence in Southeast Asia as their bilateral ties continued to deteriorate and that the pressure on countries to take sides was likely to widen even to those countries without claims in the South China Sea, such as Myanmar. The US and China have been involved in a trade war since 2018 and acrimony has intensified in recent months amid disagreements on issues ranging from the South China Sea to alleged human rights abuses against Uygurs in Xinjiang and Hong Kong’s national security law.
US President Donald Trump has accused China of covering up the corona virus pandemic, accused Beijing of “illicit espionage to steal our industrial secrets” and threatened the US could pursue a “complete decoupling” from the country. China has repeatedly rejected US accusations over its handling of the pandemic, Uygurs, Hong Kong and trade, and it has fired back at the Trump administration for undermining global cooperation and seeking to start a “new cold war”.
In an interview with The Manila Times serialised last week, Huang said that under the “pretext of upholding freedom of navigation” the US was recklessly infringing on other countries’ territorial sea and airspace and throwing its weight around in every sea of the world”. He urged Southeast Asian nations to “properly resolve disputes” with China and “prevent them from being capitalised on by the US to sabotage stability in the Asia-Pacific region”.
The interview came just days after his American counterpart released a lengthy statement on July 16 entitled “The Philippines’ future floats in the West Philippine Sea”. The piece hinted at deeper collaboration between the US and the Philippines in the contested waters and referred to the “West Philippine Sea” on four occasions. Use of the term raised eyebrows among observers, as it was coined under the previous Philippine administration of President Benigno Aquino III to refer to waters surrounding the Scarborough Shoal and Pag-Asa Island, which are claimed by both the Philippines and China.
“US scientists and innovators are eager to join their Philippine colleagues in researching these waters,” Kim said in a statement. “Through the recently ratified US-Philippines Science and Technology Agreement, together we are building new pathways to increased scientific collaboration in the West Philippine Sea and beyond,” said Kim.
The presence of Chinese research vessels within the Philippines’ 200 mile EEZ has long been a sore point between the two countries. Manila’s 10-year scientific agreement with the US signed last year could enable Manila to conduct joint research in waters which Kim called “the patrimony of Southeast Asian nations, the lifeblood of their coastal communities, and the livelihood of millions of their citizens”.
‘Driving a wedge’
The verbal sparring in the Philippines paralleled a similar war of words in Myanmar, where China’s embassy has accused the US of “outrageously smearing” China and trying to drive a wedge between Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbours. That claim came after an article on Saturday by George N. Sibley, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Myanmar, accused China of exploiting its smaller neighbour’s commodity industries and labour force.
Sibley said China’s new security law in Hong Kong and its actions in the South China Sea should not be seen as disputes that were “far away” from Myanmar, warning that such actions were “how modern sovereignty is often lost not through dramatic, overt action, but through a cascade of smaller ones that lead to its slow erosion over time”. “Instead of demarcating fisheries, it takes the shape of unregulated banana plantations in Kachin State that thrive on forced labour and damage the environment,” Sibley wrote.
“Instead of spurious maritime claims, it takes the shape of unregulated investment and corruption in the mining and forestry sectors. Instead of island building, it takes the shape of infrastructure projects and special economic zones that pile on debt and cede regulatory control, and benefit China far more than they do the people of Myanmar.” The Chinese embassy refuted Sibley’s statement on its website and Facebook page in both English and Burmese, saying he was “deliberately driving a wedge” between the neighbours. It was “selfish, hypocritical, contemptible and ugly”, the embassy’s spokesperson said.
“Over the years, the US has imposed sanctions on Myanmar in political, economic, military and other fields, which not only seriously hindered Myanmar’s economic and social development, but also greatly affected Myanmar’s exchanges with other countries.” Jay Batongbacal, the director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said the heated arguments should be seen against the dual backdrop of the trade war and the South China Sea disputes.
“The US-China trade war has been going on for the last couple of years, but in the same period, China has also taken overt coercive action against Vietnam and Malaysia; put pressure on Indonesia; and continued its pressure tactics against the Philippines [and the] destruction of Scarborough Shoal despite supposedly friendly relations,” Batongbacal said.
“They can’t say it wasn’t coming; they gave the US the perfect opportunity to do it by intimidating the rest of Southeast Asia.” He thought this was the first time that a US official had used the term “West Philippine Sea” in an official statement, and that “adopting Philippine terminology” was a way of reinforcing “US recognition that these marine areas are under Philippine jurisdiction”. He added that the US had recently said “an attack on Philippine troop’s ships or aircraft will trigger the Mutual Defence Treaty wherever they are”. “The fact that they said this applies to the South China Sea, and now to the West Philippine Sea, means it will apply to troops, ships and aircraft within the area of the West Philippine Sea.”
While the present Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has previously made a point of “pivoting” to China and relying less on its traditional ally the US, speculation it might be “pivoting back” gained credence recently when Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr expressed concern over Chinese naval drills near the Paracel Islands and vowed a “severe” response if Chinese naval drills encroached on its territory. China’s relationship with Myanmar is similarly complex.
China is Myanmar’s most important trading partner, accounting for about US$11 billion in trade in 2018, almost double the next nearest nation, Thailand. But there have been conflicts and disagreements as well. In 2018, Myanmar scaled down a Chinese-led deep water port project along the coast of the Bay of Bengal for fear of falling into debt. Relations were strained in 2015 by a flare-up in fighting between Myanmar’s military and an ethnic Chinese rebel group, with civilians killed by bombs falling on China’s side of the border.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Myanmar in January, during which the two sides signed a total of 33 agreements including projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. “When negotiating energy, communications, or transportation infrastructure projects, Myanmar benefits when it is not burdened by unnecessary debt or exploited for strategic gain,” Sibley said. China had a different view. “The two sides are strengthening cooperation in the fields such as transportation, energy and production capacity, which Myanmar needs urgently for its development,” the Chinese embassy spokesperson said. “China is committed to promoting practical cooperation with Myanmar on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit.”