The dispute has been a serious point of contention with China ever since. The Philippines did so following China’s seizure of Mischief Reef (called Panganiban Reef by the Philippines) in 1995. It was donated to the Philippines in 1976 and then intentionally run aground on Second Thomas Shoal (called Ayungin Shoal by the Philippines) in 1999. The BRP Sierra Madre LST-57 was commissioned by the United States during World War II as USS Harnett County. However, decades of Chinese government misbehavior in the region have underlined the fact that words alone will not inhibit the Chinese Communist Party’s revisionist campaign in the maritime domain. This kind of clear, collective messaging of commitment to international law is important and has been slow to materialize. Manila’s diplomatic response to this most recent encounter was robust and, possibly more importantly, it was backed by unequivocal statements of support from friendly capitols around the world - including from European Union, United States, Australia and Japan. Earlier this year Beijing’s bad behavior made headlines for employing a dazzling laser against a Philippine Coast Guard ship near the shoal. It also shadowed and harassed Philippine ships in 2022, 2018, 2014, and 2013. China’s Coast Guard interdicted Philippine resupply efforts with water cannons and attempts at ramming at Second Thomas Shoal in 2021. Navy, which could dispel the image of Chinese forces enjoying unchallenged dominance in the region while resolving an untenable security situation at Second Thomas Shoal.Ĭhina’s Coast Guard vessel fired water cannons at Philippine vessels on Aug.

But the coercive tactics long employed against littoral states in the region would be less effective against the U.S. By raising the potential costs of interference, a combined outpost might deter future efforts from Beijing aimed at interdicting resupply of Philippine bases in the South China Sea.Ī more muscular approach could elicit Chinese escalation, given the Chinese military’s considerable force presence in the area and its pattern of coercion against other South China Sea claimants. Such a forward operating base would be a powerful signal of commitment to the alliance for both nations as well as providing significant improvements in situational awareness for both the United States and the Philippines. The Philippines should remove the Sierra Madre and replace it with a permanent structure manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Failure to do so would not only create conditions for loss of Philippine sovereignty, a reenactment of China’s seizure of the Philippines’ Scarborough Shoal in 2012, but could also potentially create a crisis within the bilateral U.S.-Philippine alliance. The United States and the Philippines should act before being forced to react to deteriorating conditions aboard the ship. As the ship rusts and rots, its physical disintegration is creating significant risk for regional security, its steadily eroding hull an unsettlingly apt metaphor for the tenuous status quo in the South China Sea.Ĭhina may feel emboldened to interfere with the ship to stake its own claim to the territory, which raises the prospect of U.S.-Chinese conflict over the outpost. It was intentionally run aground in 1999 to physically demarcate what is already widely accepted - Philippine maritime sovereignty over islands and atolls that many nations claim. The Sierra Madre was an improvised, temporary solution to a vicious problem. The Chinese Communist Party’s real intent is to strengthen China’s territorial claims within the Nine Dash Line - the vague, unilateral Chinese addition to maritime charts that purports to extend territorial sovereignty over almost the entirety of the East and South China Seas. The Chinese government followed its provocative act with a disinformation campaign designed to coerce the Philippines to recognize Chinese claims of extended territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea.Ĭhina claims that the Philippines had previously agreed to remove the Sierra Madre - a false claim the current government has vociferously denied.

Recent Chinese Coast Guard operations in the South China Sea targeted a Philippine vessel attempting to resupply a remote outpost that has the potential to become the next flashpoint in the region.

China small shelf units