Asia Times: Spratlys spat draws nervous glances



	January 20, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Spratlys spat draws nervous glances
By Johanna Son

MANILA - China's perceived bullying of thePhilippines, through the persistent build-up of its militarypresence in disputed waters of the South China Sea, is drawingnervous glances from neighboring countries.

The off-and-on spat between the region's giant, China, and thePhilippines, is alarming to Southeast Asian nations becauseManila's defenses are no match for Beijing's military.

Despite several rounds ofdialogue between the Philippine and Chinese governments, theaccords reached at these meetings have not stopped Beijing fromconstructing new structures around the Spratly islands andstationing military vessels there.

Chinese activity there has also continued despite remindersfrom Southeast Asian countries, most recently at the Decembersummit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders,to refrain from making moves that disturb the status quo in theSpratlys.

On Monday, Philippine Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado saidthe military had ''verified'' sightings of Chinese frigates offMischief Reef, which had been claimed by Manila until Chinaoccupied it in 1995.

''We see a renewal of naval activities of the People'sLiberation Army,'' Mercado said, calling this ''disturbing''.

He added that the frigates, which belong to the Jiangsu class,are armed with both surface-to-surface missiles and surface-to-airmissiles.

''This really adds a new flavor to this,'' he said. ''Thepresence of these military or naval vessels does not in any way addto the confidence-building measures that we have agreed upon."

China's moves are coming at a vulnerable time for ASEAN, miredin recession and with many member countries beset by internal crises.

''The financial crisis has set back military buildupprograms among ASEAN members and the disintegration of the non-interference doctrine has prevented ASEAN from responding with theprevious solidarity they once had when their collective securityinterests were threatened,'' politicalanalyst Amando Doronila wrote in a commentary thisweek.

''China is taking advantage of weaknesses and the virtualparalysis of ASEAN to respond to the creeping encroachments onislets [in the Spratlys],'' he added.

China's actions, despite repeated public reassurances that itis willing to cooperate with other countries, have so worriedManila that President Joseph Estrada has decided to convene theNational Security Council.

This is the first time Estrada is convening the council sincehe became president last year, underlining the priority theSpratlys issue now holds for the government.

''Foreign policy is not the President's cup of tea,'' Doronila wrote. ''But themove to convene the NSC . . . sends the signal that the South ChinaSea dispute is the top foreign policy concern of thePhilippines."

The sighting of the Chinese frigates is the latest developmentin the current round of tensions in the South China Sea, whichflared up in November when Manila published photos of Chinesestructures on Mischief Reef, just 185 nautical miles west of thePhilippines.

The Philippines asked China to tear down the permanent cementstructures, saying they were likely to be developed into''barracks'' and expanded to have the capability to berth biggerships.

Beijing said they were merely fishermen's structures beingrepaired after having been damaged by storms.

The Philippines claims that Mischief Reef falls within thatpart of the Spratlys it calls ''Kalayaan'' or Freedom Island,pointing out that it is far closer to the country than it is toChina's southern Hainan island. But China has long said it hashistorical claim to some 80 percent of the South China Sea.

The Spratlys, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits, areclaimed in whole or in part also by Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei andMalaysia.

Far from settling in recent months, the latest round oftensions between China and the Philippines has only persisted,putting Manila in a quandary over Beijing's unilateral projectionof power.

Other governments have expressed fears about rising tension inthe South China Sea. On Monday, Vietnamese foreign ministryspokesman Phan Thuy Thanh said Hanoi was following with ''deepworry the complex evolution'' in Mischief Reef.

Manila's response has been to drum up international attentionon the issue, distributing aerial photos of the Chinese structuresand trying to bring international pressure to bear onBeijing.

The Philippines has called for an international conferenceamong all Spratlys claimants, a proposal that U.S. DefenseSecretary William Cohen was reported to have supported.

China, which has always been cool to multilateral dealings onthe Spratlys, brushed off the suggestion and said ''externalinterference in this matter is unacceptable''.

Analysts say that beyond making China's moves public, thePhilippines should get its act together and learn how toforcefully assert itself against Beijing.

Leticia Shahani, a former senator and veteran diplomat, saysthat if the Philippines is bullied, it is because it permits it.

While it is understandable for Manila to try to internalize theSpratlys tussle, Shahani said: ''We should balance theinternational approach with a firm policy which upholds ournational interest."

''One of the reasons the Chinese ruthlessly pursue their buildup and ignore our polite protests and pious hopes on the need forself-restraint is their perception that the Philippines has as yetno definite national position on the Spratlys which it is willingto defend on a sustained basis,'' she explained.

''They see the Filipinos as ambivalent, reactive,prevaricating, dogged by conflicting guidelines and easily scared;thus they rush to fill the existing vacuum,'' she added.

Manila has yet to formally define the boundaries of itsexclusive economic zone under the United Nations Law of the Sea.''Before we negotiate with other States, we must be clear aboutour priorities,'' Shahani said.

This, however, does not address the immediate problem ofdealing with China's two-track policy - assuring neighbours thatit will never use force in the South China Sea while going aheadwith building up its presence in waters uncomfortably close to aweaker country's.

As a Thai official said recently, Southeast Asian nationscannot afford to have a security headache on top of an alreadycrippling recession.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.