The in disputed waters of the South China Sea took place on Wednesday, with both sides trading blame after Manila claimed a Chinese patrol fired a water cannon and “sideswiped” a Philippine coast guard boat.
China claimed the Philippine coast guard vessels attempted to “intrude into China’s territorial waters around Huangyan Island,” which is what China calls Scarborough Shoal, a ring of shallow rocks some 220 kilometers (120 nautical miles) off the coast of the Philippine island of Luzon.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea as its maritime territory, despite a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal declaring these claims invalid under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Among other things, UNCLOS defines a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as extending 200 nautical miles from land. The EEZ allows a country rights to marine resources.
For reference, Scarborough Shoal, where these confrontations frequently take place, is over 460 nautical miles (851 kilometers) from the nearest Chinese shore at Hainan Island, and is well within the Philippines’ EEZ.
However, these territorial disputes also involve other countries, chiefly Malaysia and Vietnam, both of which have claims in the South China Sea overlapping that of China and the Philippines.
Philippine maritime laws spark regional backlash
On November 8, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed laws called the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, that reaffirm Manila’s maritime claims.
“These signal our resolve to protect our maritime resources, preserve our rich biodiversity and ensure that our waters remain a source of life and livelihood for all Filipinos,” Marcos said.
China quickly responded, calling the move an “illegal ruling.” The laws also imposed fixed lanes for foreign ships, prompting China to summon the Philippine ambassador.
The new legislation also angered Malaysia, whose deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin said it restated a territorial claim by Manila over the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo, a dispute that dates back to colonial times.
In August, Vietnam and the Philippines agreed to and enhance maritime security collaboration amid China’s growing assertiveness in the disputed waters.
The two countries are set to sign an official agreement before the end of the year, vowing to resolve disagreements peacefully under international law.
Maritime disputes between smaller countries
Shahriman Lockman, director of special projects at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia, said the Philippines’ overlapping claims are “provocative” for Malaysia.
“Many people often overlook that the overlapping claims in the South China Sea are not solely between China and Southeast Asian claimants but also involve disputes among the Southeast Asian claimants themselves,” he told DW.
“In some ways, the Philippine claims are especially provocative for Malaysia for they encompass the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. This is not an uninhabited island but a state with nearly 4 million people and the second largest by area in Malaysia,” Lockman said, adding that “Malaysia’s protests are nothing new — what would be unusual is their absence.”
Challenges in unified resistance against China
Lockman said that each country has their own disputes, which makes it difficult for them to unite in resisting to China.
“The reality for each individual claimant varies significantly, and this highlights the issue with the world viewing the situation through a narrow lens that reduces it to a China-versus-Southeast Asia narrative,” said Lockman.
Since Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim took office in 2022, experts say he has been shifting his country’s alliance away from the West in favor of Beijing.
China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner since 2009, accounting for 17% of Malaysia’s global trade — close to $100 billion (€95 billion) — the country’s trade minister, Zafrul Aziz, said in June.
Protecting these precious economic ties is paramount to Malaysia, and observers say that is why the country rarely opposes Beijing’s claims or actions in the , despite also having its own long-running territorial disputes with China.
Ian Chong, a political scientist in Singapore, said that Malaysia generally takes a quieter approach to disputes with China.
“Apart from silence on the South China Sea dispute between Manila and Beijing, Malaysia has also taken a quieter approach to its own dispute with Beijing,” Chong said in September.
He added that the Philippines’ open defiance of China’s claims contrasts with Malaysia’s “muted and private responses” to the Beijing protest at Malaysia’s oil exploration and Beijing’s deployment of coast guard vessels off the coast of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on northern Borneo island.
Chong said this indicates Malaysia is “ready to pressure” countries like the Philippines that it considers to be “relatively weaker,” while being less willing to stand up to , as it offers “significant economic opportunities”
Edited by: Keith Walker
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