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The official Chinese sender of CCTV announced that the coast guard “introduced maritime control and exercises sovereign jurisdiction” over the Rafa Sandy Cay, which is part of the disputed SPRATLY archipelago.
Rafa took place on the eve of the annual Filipino-American military exercises starting next week, including Coastal defense and offensive operations at sea.
“Financial Times”, he notes that one can not yet talk about the total occupation of Rafa Sandy Cay by China, because there are no signs of a permanent military presence. According to the Philippine military authorities, the Chinese coast guard “withdrew” after placing the Chinese flag on the occupied territory.
The newspaper emphasizes that Sandy Cay is a sandy shelter with an area of just over 200 sq m, which, however, is strategic for China, because it allows you to expand the jurisdiction to an area of 12 nautical miles, covering the island of Titu, which the Philippines use to track the movements of the Chinese Navy. China's official announcement of control over Sandy Cay also increases the fears that Beijing also intends to annex other uninhabited reefs and fragments of the South China Sea coast.
Beijing officially placed his flag for the first time in the uninhabited land in the South China Sea for the first time – writes the Financial Times. This step increases the risk of tightening the confrontation in the region, the more that Chinese law allows coast guards to stop and inspect foreign ships recognized as aggressors and to stop their crews.
China and the Philippines, as well as Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan for many years were unable to agree the status of two groups of small islands and reefs in the South China Sea – the SPRATLY Archipelago (Chinese name Nansha) in the south and the Paracel Islands (Sisha) in the north, as well as neighboring waters – exclusive economic zones with a width of 200 sea miles.
In 2016, the permanent arbitration tribunal in The Hague after the complaint of the Philippines ruled that China's actions around the SPRATLY archipelago, where Beijing appointed a 200 nautical economic zone, are illegal. The Chinese authorities ignored this verdict.
