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China has captured a controversial reef just kilometers away from the most important military post of the Philippines in the South China Sea, increasing the risk of a new stay between the two rival claimants.
China’s Coast Guard “implemented maritime control and exercised sovereign jurisdiction” on Sandy Cay this month, reported the Military Broader of the CCTV state broadcaster Saturday morning. She said coastal guards had unveiled the Chinese flag to declare sovereignty over the reef on the spratly islands, showing a photo of the act.
The move marks the first time in many years that Beijing, who claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety, has officially planted its flag in another feature of the previously unoccupied land.
It comes while the Philippines and its ally Sh.BA are performing Balikatan, their largest annual military exercises, which will include coastal protection training and the confiscation of the island. They will be held next week in the territory of the Philippines closest to the spratlys.
Although only one sand bank measuring just over 200 square meters, Sandy Cay has strategic value for China because international law gives it a territorial sea. That 12-nautical radius overlaps with the island of Thitu, Reef Sea of South China that the Philippines use to follow Chinese movements in the area.
The official statement of Beijing’s sovereignty on Sandy Cay will increase the fear that Beijing aims to create reefs and careless banks.
Over the past two years, Manila has increased coast guards’ patrols and sent scientific teams to investigate Chinese recovery reports in Sandy Cay and three other underwater rocks in the south.
Some maritime experts argue that the new Chinese advertising is not likely because the artificial islands built and militarized by Beijing over the past decade have given sufficient military and coastal presence and achievements.
So far there is no sign of a permanent Chinese occupation of Sandy Cay or construction on it. A naval security official in the Philippines said Saturday that the Chinese coast guards had left after opening the flag.
But the official statement of sovereignty showed that China can “increase their harassment to us in Page-Assa,” he added, using the Philippine name for Thitu.
The Coastal Woman of the Philippines has been operating a monitoring base in Thitu since the end of 2023, but Manila is now improving another runway and infrastructure on the island. The building is part of efforts to make the rocks of the Sea of South China more inhabited and pushed against increasingly aggressive Chinese activity.
China’s domestic law gives its coastal guards a mandate to ride and inspect foreign ships “interference” in the waters claimed by Beijing and prohibit their crews. This raises the risk of clashes with the Philippine army and coast guards in Thitu, in Waters China now treats like its territorial sea.
China’s military assets are much stronger than the post. Its installations in nearby reef include surface-to-air missiles, hangars, a runway, radar and a deep waters housing port. But because it is categorized only as a low wave height, Subi lacks a sea of territory under international law.
