The Philippines is far from being harassed by the People’s Republic China as much as the Republic of China, just across the Taiwan Strait, is being harassed by China.
Nor is China’s rhetoric toward the Philippines as bellicose. Chinese spokesmen don’t rage about how the Philippines must be reunited with China and how all Filipinos are compatriots. China doesn’t assert that China cannot rule out taking the Philippines by force.
Still, China pretty continually harasses the Philippines, asserting territorial claims to waters close to the Philippines and perpetually ramming and water-cannoning and lasering Philippine vessels.
Now China has added an underwater spy drone to its methods—or rather, it is suspected of having done so (“Suspected Chinese underwater spy drone found by fishermen in waters off the Philippines,” CBS News, January 2, 2025).
A submarine drone suspected to be from China was recovered in waters off the central Philippines, police said on Thursday, warning of “potential national security implications.”
Three fishermen found the drone on Monday around six miles off the coast of San Pascual in Masbate province, a police report said….
The yellow drone marked “HY-119” was found floating at sea before being turned over to authorities, regional police director Andre Dizon told AFP.
Six-feet long, torpedo-shaped, has an eye that be used to view things. “HY-119 refers to a Chinese underwater navigation and communication system,” a regional police director says.
Tensions and military confrontations have escalated in the South China Sea in recent months. In December, Chinese coast guard vessels backed by navy ships fired powerful water cannons and blocked and sideswiped a Philippine patrol vessel.
“In recent months” seems like an understatement. Maybe China’s bullying has intensified in recent months. But it has been using water cannons and other noxious tactics against Philippine vessels for at least several years.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes that territorial disputes in the South China Sea go back at least to the 1970s and that in recent years, “satellite imagery has shown China’s increased efforts to reclaim land in the South China Sea by physically increasing the islands’ size or creating new ones altogether.”
In addition to piling sand onto existing reefs, China has constructed ports, military installations, and airstrips—particularly in the Paracel and Spratly Islands, where it has twenty and seven outposts, respectively. China has militarized Woody Island by deploying fighter jets, cruise missiles, and a radar system….
In 1999, the Philippines intentionally grounded a ship to reinforce its territorial claims to the area which it calls the West Philippine Sea. Since then, the Philippine Coast Guard has conducted monthly resupply missions to its military contingent on the ship, known as the BRP Sierra Madre. Chinese Coast Guard vessels began to employ dangerous tactics to harass Philippine resupply missions in 2023, leading to heightened clashes. Collisions have become increasingly common, and the Chinese Coast Guard has used a military-grade laser and repeatedly fired water cannons against Philippine ships. On June 17, a Chinese vessel and a Philippine supply ship collided near the Second Thomas Shoal; both sides blamed the other for the incident.
I have to differ with CFR’s neutral wording here about the June 2023 incident. Those ships did not collide in some traffic-accident kind of way—i.e., because somebody didn’t look where he was going or what have you. The Chinese vessel rammed the Philippine vessel.
That China says “no, no, it was the other guy” is meaningless. Philippine personnel would be happy to be left alone to go about their business resupplying the Sierra Madre and so forth in their own waters. And when was the last time that the Philippines sent any vessels to stake claims to waters off of Shenzhen or Guangdong?
But the Chinese vessels are not happy to leave the Philippine vessels alone; the Chinese commanders and captains and crews have orders to cause trouble.
In addition to the disturbing news of the suspected Chinese spy torpedo, the Philippines is also being confronted this new year by a suspected giant Chinese ship, which has just shown up in a “disputed area” of the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone (“China’s ‘monster’ ship arrives at Scarborough Shoal,” Radio Free Asia, January 2, 2025).
The world’s largest coast guard vessel, a Chinese ship known as “The Monster,” has arrived at the disputed Scarborough Shoal inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone to boost Beijing’s control over the maritime area, an American analyst said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese navy has been conducting a New Year carrier-based helicopter training exercise in the airspace over the South China Sea, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The 12,000-ton CCG 5901 arrived at Scarborough Shoal on Wednesday, said Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight project at Stanford University, who tracks the ship’s movements.
There are at least three other Chinese coast guard ships—CCG 3106, 3302 and 3305—as well as seven militia ships, already present at the shoal, Powell told Radio Free Asia.
The aim of their mission is to boost Beijing’s control over the maritime area just 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from the main Philippine island of Luzon, he said.
Let’s see who China blames when the 12,000-ton Monster starts ramming things.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: The Spratly Agenda
