Aug 30, 2024 - 16:55
By manilatimes.net

China tightens screws on regional rivals

(UPDATE) BEIJING — China's campaign of confrontation, from remote reefs in Southeast Asia to Taiwan and far-flung Japanese islands, is designed to wear down regional rivals competing with it for contested territories, analysts say.

Beijing in recent years has asserted its claims in the long-running disputes far more boldly as its military strength has grown.

The escalating actions — over islands in the East China Sea claimed by Japan, the self-ruled territory of Taiwan and the South China Sea — have also come as Beijing's rivals have drawn closer to the United States.

"[China] believes its strong-arm tactics are paying dividends," Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, told AFP.

China has in recent months deployed military and coast guard vessels in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea.

«The number of fronts where an accident could spiral suddenly is very real,» Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, told AFP.

The latest flashpoint is Sabina Shoal, just 140 kilometers west of Palawan and roughly 1,200 km from China's nearest major landmass, the island of Hainan.

On Monday, Beijing said it took «control measures» against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that «illegally» entered the waters near Sabina Shoal.

Manila countered that Chinese vessels had stopped Philippine ships from resupplying their own coast guard vessels in the area — slamming Beijing as the «biggest disruptor» to regional peace.

China has for years sought to expand its power in the South China Sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.

It has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.

In 2012, Beijing seized control of Scarborough Shoal, another contested area close to the Philippines.