"Our giant neighbor needs to match its actions to its words."
China has finally seen fit to try and placate anger in the Philippines over its new coast guard law that explicitly authorizes preemptive strikes against foreign vessels in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The Chinese embassy in Manila on Monday played down the law as “domestic legislation” and said China would continue to seek a negotiated resolution with the Philippines over their disputes in the South China Sea.
“China Coast Guard is an administrative law enforcement agency,” the embassy said on its Facebook page. “The formulation of the coastguard law is a normal domestic legislative activity of China.”
“Enacting such a coast guard law is not unique to China, but a sovereign right to all,” the statement continued. “Many countries have enacted similar legislation. It was the Philippine coastguard law of 2009 that established the [Philippine Coast Guard] as an armed and uniformed service. None of these laws have been seen as a threat of war.”
The last line seemed aimed squarely at Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., who said last week that the law was “a verbal threat of war to any country that defies it” – after filing a diplomatic protest over the legislation.
“While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one – given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea – is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies the law; which, if unchallenged, is submission to it,” Locsin said on Twitter.
Against the backdrop of years of Chinese aggression against the Philippines and other claimants in the South China Sea, this week’s assurances rang hollow.
Moreover, the embassy statement comparing China’s new legislation to The Philippine Coast Guard Act of 2009 is ridiculous, as nothing in the Philippine law authorizes the kind of aggression against foreign vessels that Chinese legislators saw fit to include in their new measure.
As if this weren’t enough, the Chinese embassy also dismissed local media reports about the harassment of Filipino fishermen—trying to use one recent complaint that even the Armed Forces of the Philippines deemed “improbable”–to whitewash their aggression.
“Some forces in the Philippines, either for their own political interests or out of prejudice towards China, have not only misinterpreted China’s normal legislation, but also fabricated and spread relentlessly fake news such as ‘China coastguard harassing Filipino fishermen’, despite repeated denial from authorities concerned – including the Philippine armed forces – of such an improbable case,” the statement said.
It does not mention, however, many documented cases of harassment, including 2018 video footage of Chinese coast guard personnel boarding a Filipino fishing boat and helping themselves to its catch.
And as far as its preference for a “negotiated settlement” of disputes, that is not how we remember China’s seizure of the Scarborough Shoal in 2012—or its refusal to recognize the 2016 decision by a United Nations tribunal that dismissed China’s nine-dash line claim to most of the South China Sea, and its finding that the behavior of Chinese ships physically obstructing Philppine vessels is unlawful.
If China really wants to ensure good relations with its neighbors, it needs to match its actions to its words. That is something it has not done in a while.
