Philippines Concerned About China’s Alleged New Island Construction

China’s maritime forces have begun the process of building additional “large man-made islands” in the South China Sea, according to Philippine officials who announced new patrols to thwart the effort.

“No one will guard these locations except us,” Philippine National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told local media on Monday. “It is our responsibility under international law to guard them and ensure that the environment there would not be damaged and that there won’t be reclamation activities.”

That allegation adds to the acrimony around China’s claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including much of the Philippines‘s exclusive economic zone. The latest allegation centers on the Sabina Shoal, also known as Escoda Shoal — an area “just 75 nautical miles from the coast of Palawan” where Philippine Coast Guard officials say they have found deposits of crushed coral, consistent with China’s previous island-building operations.

“Here they are just getting started: So if we say that the dumping of corals in Sandy Cay has allowed [China] to expand the land area, surface area as an artificial island, then most likely, if we don’t monitor and guard against this, perhaps in the coming months, we could be surprised that there would be large man-made islands in Sabina Shoal,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said Saturday.

China dismissed the charge as a “sheer rumor” by Philippine officials.

“The Philippines has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately vilified China, and tried to mislead the international community,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday. “None of those attempts will succeed. China urges the Philippines to stop making irresponsible remarks, face up to the facts, and return to the right track of properly handling maritime disputes through negotiation and consultation.”

Philippine officials have established a rotating deployment of coast guard vessels in the area, which Tarriela said was necessitated by a “swarm” of Chinese military, maritime militia, and coast guard vessels that have tried to stymie Manila’s efforts to monitor their activities.

“The mere fact that the Chinese Coast Guard, the PLA Navy vessels, the PLA Navy helicopter is also restricting the Philippine Coast Guard in monitoring [means] they must be hiding something,” he said Saturday.

China’s move to control the South China Sea in recent years has converted the vast waterway into one of the most fraught potential hot spots in the world. Sabina Shoal is part of the Spratly Islands, where Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s regime has built seven other artificial islands and established military outposts on at least three. Sabina Shoal would be the closest yet to the major Philippine islands.

“We are alarmed by this,” Malaya said Monday. “These were crushed corals, and it was obvious that they came from another place.”

The perceived attempt at expansion could provide grounds for the Philippine Department of Justice to bring a new suit in international court, according to a prominent former jurist.

“We should file a case now. The DOJ has been preparing a case against China precisely for the damage to the marine environment in Escoda Shoal and Rozul Reef,” former Supreme Court Justice Antonio T. Carpio told ABS-CBN, a Philippine broadcaster. “We should file that to give attention, to focus [on] this illegal island-building by China — put this on the world agenda. It’s important that we continue filing, piling one arbitral award over the other, because the world will rally around any arbitral award.”

That was a reference to a 2016 arbitral award in favor of the Philippines, which filed a lawsuit in The Hague to challenge China’s claim to sovereignty in the South China Sea. Chinese officials have dismissed that ruling as “null and void,” but a regional expert backed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry acknowledged in April that it has had a “negative impact” on China’s position.

“The 2016 arbitration ruling has already had a negative impact that can hardly be fully erased, but it’s very important for China to stop the Philippines from going to a second arbitration,” Dr. Wu Shicun, the founding president of a Chinese Foreign Ministry-affiliated think tank called the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said last month.

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Philippine patrols have deterred China from continuing its alleged island-building at Sabina Shoal, according to Tarriela.

“China does not want to get caught,” he said.