Provocation or border defense? China chased away 2 Filipino planes

China's military said Wednesday it was sending naval and air forces to warn and expel two Philippine aircraft that allegedly “illegally intruded” into the airspace over the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. This is another manifestation of tensions in this region.

“We firmly call on the Philippine side to immediately stop the violations and provocations,” the People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command said in a statement.

The new diplomatic dispute intensified following suggestions from the Chinese embassy that one of the Filipino diplomats had once admitted that the Scarborough Shoal did not belong to the territory of the Philippines. On Monday, the authorities in Manila firmly rejected Beijing's claims to sovereignty over the entire South China Sea.

China should be reminded that maritime and territorial claims are subject to established international legal procedures (…) and not to unilateral proclamations or social media posts, said Rogelio Villanueva, spokesman for the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The strategic Scarborough Shoal, located approximately 220 km from the Philippines in the country's exclusive economic zone, is actually controlled by China, even though in 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague found Beijing's claims to these waters groundless under international law. The communist authorities of the PRC did not recognize this ruling, and incidents continue to occur in the disputed area.

From Beijing Krzysztof Pawliszak (PAP)

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