DISPUTE BETWEEN CHINA AND THE PHILIPPINES OVER THE SPRATLY ISLANDS AND SOUTH CHINA SEA

PHILIPPINES, CHINA, THE SPRATLY ISLANDS AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Tensions Between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea Rise in 2011

Philippines-China Spratly Island Dispute in 2011

Talks Between the Philippines and China Over the South China Sea

Philippines Energy Projects in the South China Sea

Philippines Claims China Is Threat to Peace in Southeast Asia

Filipino Lawmakers Visit Disputed Island

Troop Shelter, a Philippine Beauty Contest and the Spratly Islands

Philippines and former American Ships and Radar Stations in South China Sea

China and the Philippine Face Off Over Scarborough Shoal in April 2012

Scarborough Shoal Stand-Off Winds Down

China and the Philippine Face Off Over Half Moon Shoal in July 2012

Tactics used by the Philippines in Its Stand-Off with China

Was the Philippines Inspired by Tactics of 3rd-Century B.C. Roman Dictator

Outcome of Philippines-China Standoff in Contextual and Historical Terms

Economic Pressure by China on the Philippines during the 2012 South China Sea Dispute

Philippine Banana Growers Feel Effects of South China Sea Dispute

Legal Claims on Scarborough Shoal

Vietnam and the Philippines Refuse to Stamp Controversial New Chinese Passports

PHILIPPINES, CHINA, THE SPRATLY ISLANDS AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

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View of South China Sea The Philippines calls the South China Sea the West Philippine Sea. Parts of the
Spratly Islands---which the Philippines calls Kalayaan, or freedom---lie just over 100 miles from the
Philippines but are more than 1,000 miles from China. The Philippines has lead the effort to unite
Southeast Asian nations against what it calls China's illegal “grab” of most of the South China Sea.
 In the South China Sea the Philippines controls five tiny islands, two reefs and two sandbars. Pagasa is a
Philippine-controlled island in the Spratlys with a population of 50 and a small garrison. China accused
the residents of the island of trespassing on Chinese turf. Although tiny and a large part of it made up of
a single gravel airstrip, the island is the biggest in a cluster that the Philippines claims as it own and calls
Kalayaan group of islands.

The Philippines has proposed that the territorial dispute be resolved through the International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea. It also has strengthened military ties with the United States---which recently
unveiled a new defense strategy that places greater emphasis on Asia---through such measures as
conducting joint military exercises.

Tensions Between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea Rise in 2011

China has been particularly keen to thwart efforts by the Philippines and others to exploit resources it
wants for itself. The Philippines claims Chinese naval vessels have fired warning volleys at Filipino
fishermen, harassed an oil exploration vessel and put up markers on Philippine waters in 2011 year after
China outlined its "9-dash claim" to the sea in 2009.

In the spring of 2011 Chinese naval vessels harassed a seismic survey ship working for Forum Energy, a
British firm looking for oil under contract with the Philippines. After two days of near-collisions, the
Philippines government sent out a small military plane to fly over the area."Fortunately, the Chinese
withdrew," Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban, the commander of Philippine military forces said. A new round of
surveys is due to start early next year, setting up another potential confrontation.

Andrew Higgins wrote in the Washington Post, “At his seafront headquarters, Sabban showed off a
modest trophy of his efforts to assert Philippine sovereignty: a small fiberglass boat and three Yamaha
outboard motors. His men seized the vessel and its Chinese crew of six in March off the southern coast
of Palawan...Interviewed in a Puerto Princesa jail, the Chinese crewmen said they’d set out from the
Chinese island of Hainan to hunt for fish and got lost after their navigation equipment failed. They
declined to identify their boat's owner. Sabban doubts this story and thinks they were part of a bigger
Chinese flotilla as their tiny craft could not have sailed so far on its own. What they were up to, though,
isn't clear. [Source: Andrew Higgins, Washington Post, September 17 2011]
Philippines-China Spratly Island Dispute in 2011

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PanubaFilipino officials said that Chinese forces had intruded into Philippines-claimed areas around the
Spratly Islands six times between February and June 2011, firing shots at least once at Filipino
fishermen. China denied the allegation. Beijing said it would use violence only when attacked. In
February, Manila accused Chinese naval ships of harassing an exploration ship near Reed Bank, an area
80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Palawan province. In March 2011, the Philippines scrambled military
aircrafts after Chinese patrol boats harassed a Filipino oil exploration vessel in the South China Sea. In
May. The Philippines said the Chinese Navy erected iron poles and placed a buoy on a reef in the Spratly
Islands.

According to AP, Philippines President Benigno Aquino III insisted that the Philippines won't be bullied
by China in a territorial spat over the Spratly Islands and that Beijing should stop intruding into waters
claimed by Manila. Aquino also said in an interview with The Associated Press that a government-backed
mission to scout Philippine-claimed waters for oil and gas had turned up “very good” prospects, though
he declined to elaborate. He said the Philippines reserved the right to explore its waters despite China's
rival claims. “The overall strategy, we're not going to engage in an arms race with them. We are not
going to escalate the tensions there but we do have to protect our rights," Aquino said.

China earlier demanded that the Philippines halt any oil exploration there without Beijing's permission.
The Chinese ambassador in Manila said, however, that China was open to joint exploration with other
countries. Aqino's office said it wads renaming the South China Sea the “West Philippine Sea." “We will
not be pushed around because we are a tiny state compared with theirs," Aquino said. “We think we
have very solid grounds to say “do not intrude into our territory” and that is not a source of dispute or
should not be a source of dispute," the President said. “We will continue with dialogues, but I think, for
our internal affairs, we don't have to ask anybody else's permission."

The Philippines already has protested over six or seven incidents involving alleged Chinese intrusion into
waters that Manila says belongs to it because they lie within its 200-mile (320-kilometer) exclusive
economic zone that is covered by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The UK-based Forum Energy PLC, which has a contract with the Philippines government to explore the
Reed Bank, has announced that it has completed seismic tests in the area and will process the data to
identify the best location for drilling appraisal wells. Forum Energy Robin Nicholson said in a statement
in March that his company is looking forward “to making further investments into the project." The
company said that in 2006, a seismic survey in an area in the Reed Bank indicated it contained 3.4 trillion
cubic feet of gas.

In June and July 2011, the Philippines and the United States staged joint naval drills---known as
“Cooperation Afloat Readiness Training” (CARAT)---near the disputed Spratlys islands in the South China
Sea. US, Philippines start navy drills. The United States pledged its "enduring commitment" to helping
the Philippines, as the longtime allies began naval exercises amid a simmering maritime row with China.
The U.S. sent two state-of-the-art US missile destroyers to the 11-days military exercise but emphasised
the event was an annual one aimed at deepening defence ties, and not linked to the rising concern in
Manila about allegedly aggressive Chinese actions in the strategic and potentially resource-rich South
China Sea."Source: AFP, June 28, 2011]

Talks Between the Philippines and China Over the South China Sea

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U.S. ships operate in formation

in the South China SeaIn July 2011, the Philippines and China have agreed not to let disputes in the
South China Sea affect friendly relations. After Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held talks in Beijing the two countries issued a joint statement that
read: “The two sides reaffirmed their commitments to respect and abide by the Declaration on the
Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea...Both ministers exchanged views on the maritime disputes
and agreed not to let the maritime disputes affect the broader picture of friendship and cooperation
between the two countries." Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping described the meeting as “productive”.

In August 2011, Philippines President Benigno Aquino met his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, during a
four-day visit to Beijing. The two leaders agreed on the need for a binding code of conduct in the sea.
Aquino told Hu of his wish that the territorial dispute be settled with a “regional” solution. “President
Aquino initiated (the discussion on the West Philippine Sea) and he mentioned that we have differences
but these differences should not deter us from moving forward. The President also mentioned the
position of the Philippine government or the Philippine side, because this is a regional problem, it
requires a regional solution," a Philippines government spokesman said. “On the side of the Chinese,
they also mentioned that they continue to hold their consistent position that it should be resolved
peacefully and they would encourage that the region be developed or the South China Sea be developed
as a sea of friendship, peace and cooperation. So both sides were very positive in addressing the issue in
the South China Sea," he added.
Philippines Energy Projects in the South China Sea

China has not objected to a big existing natural gas field off Palawan developed by a state-owned
Philippine company, Shell and Chevron but has demanded that Manila stay away from potential energy
wealth in the nearby Spratlys. The Department of Energy in Manila is nonetheless now taking bids for 15
new offshore exploration blocks, three of them in or near contested waters.

The Malampaya gas field is to the east of Palawan island in an area of the South China Sea not claimed
by China. The $4.5 billion Malampaya project, estimated to hold 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and
65 million barrels of condensate, is operated by Shell Philippine Exploration (RDSa.L: Quote), Chevron
Philippines and state-owned PNOC Exploration Corp .

In June 2011, the Philippines said it expected to award next year 15 contracts for oil and gas
explorations requiring total investments of at least $7.5 billion, most of them in the Palawan and Sulu
Sea areas. The Philippines claims it has the sovereign right to explore for oil and gas deposits on its own
in the sea's Reed Bank section. The Philippine energy department has announced plans to auction off
areas of the South China Sea for oil exploration, despite worsening territorial rows with China, which
prefers bilateral talks on the disputes.

Ismael Ocampo, the department's director of energy resource development for the Philippines, told the
Washington Post he'd like CNOOC to make a bid as that would mean Beijing acknowledges Philippine
jurisdiction. But, with that unlikely to happen, he'd prefer a big American firm as “they have an armada
of battleships” behind them.

The Filipino plan drew an angry response from China's official media, which accused the Philippines of
violating a 2002 declaration between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for self-
restraint on the dispute. A China Daily editorial on Friday pointedly singled out the Philippines as it said
the Chinese government would not allow its territory to be nibbled away. "There could well be a high
price to pay for any misjudgment on the South China Sea issue by countries like the Philippines," it said.

Philippines Claims China Is Threat to Peace in Southeast Asia

In August 2011, AFP reported that Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario warned that China's
bold claims of control over the South China Sea are one of the biggest threats to peace in Southeast
Asia, The threat concerns not only the rival claimants to the hotly contested area, but also all other
entities using the waters for shipping, he said in a speech at a Manila university.

"If Philippine sovereign rights can be denigrated by this baseless claim, many countries should begin to
contemplate the potential threat to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea," he said. "The
imperative to speak frankly was borne out of an enormous sense of exigency and urgency... to one of
the greatest threats to the stability of our progressive Southeast Asian neighbourhood."

Del Rosario repeated calls for UN arbitration on the disputes and for all claimants to jointly develop
disputed sections, while asserting Manila's sovereign right to explore for oil and gas deposits on its own
in the sea's Reed Bank section.

Filipino Lawmakers Visit Disputed Island

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Ship deployed from USS TortugaIn July 2011. AP reported, a group of Filipino lawmakers flew to Pag-asa
Island, the Philippine-occupied island in the South China Sea to assert their country's claim to the region
in defiance of China's protest that the visit threatens regional stability. Even though the daylong visit
upset China, a senior Chinese diplomat at a meeting of Asian security officials in Bali, Indonesia, said that
his country has agreed to draft guidelines for behavior in the disputed region with the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. [Source: Jim Gomez Associated Press, July 20, 2011]

The mission to Pagasa Island was organized by a left-wing legislator, Walden Bello, who, after years of
criticizing the United States, now worries more about China. “Just look at their maps and you say: “My
God, how do they come up with these claims?”---Bello said. He sponsored a motion in congress for the
South China Sea to be called the West Philippine Sea.

Dozens of Filipino troops and sunburned villagers welcomed the four-member congressional delegation
on Pag-asa Island. "This is a historic moment for the congressional delegation. This is Philippine
territory," Bello told a small crowd of residents, government officials and troops who greeted him in the
intense tropical heat.

Bello carried two new Philippine flags for the island. He and the others sang their national anthem
during a flag-raising ceremony in front of a small one-story town hall on the 91-acre (37-hectare) island,
which also has a military camp and a small civilian community of about 60 people. Pag-asa,
internationally called Tithu Island, lies in the South China Sea about 300 miles (480 kilometers) west of
the western Philippine province of Palawan. Kalayaan municipality was established in 1978.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Ethan Sun said Tuesday that China would relay its "great concern" to the
Philippine government over the lawmakers' trip. He said it goes against the spirit of a 2002 accord
between China and ASEAN, which is nonbinding. The trip "serves no purpose but to undermine peace
and stability in the region and sabotage China-Philippine relationship," Sun said in a statement.

Bello said that the trip, which his party calls a "sovereignty mission," aims at peacefully asserting the
Philippines' claim to Pag-asa and surrounding territory."We come in peace," he said in a speech on the
island. "We support a diplomatic solution, but let there be no doubt in anybody's mind, in any foreign
power's mind that if they dare to eject us from Pag-asa, if they dare to eject us from our rightful
territories, Filipinos will not take that sitting down. Filipinos are born to resist aggression. Filipinos are
willing to die for their soil."