By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC News, Manila
image provided, Philippine Coast Guard
Laser emitted from a Chinese ship (courtesy: Philippine Coast Guard)
It’s been an unusually busy and strange week for China.
We don’t know what equipment the Chinese used or how powerful they were. However, because laser weapons damage vision, their use is prohibited by United Nations treaties. Following the incident, countries such as the United States, Australia, Japan and Germany immediately issued statements of condemnation.
After claiming it had the right to use the laser to protect its “sovereignty”, the Chinese denied firing the Filipino crew. Using “a handheld laser speedometer and a green laser pointer,” he explained that neither was dangerous.
This is done around underwater reefs.
In 2014, the BBC traveled to the South China Sea to search for Sierra Madre. As the sun rose, not even the target’s shadow was in sight.
Amidst the sound of the ship’s engine, I heard the captain’s voice, “Don’t worry.” “I know where I’m going. It’s on that reef.”
The captain pointed north, and through the morning haze he could see a rusty gray shipwreck. It was on a vast reef that could be seen several meters above the water.
The Sierra Madre hasn’t been a particularly impressive ship since her active days. She was built as a tank landing ship during World War II and saw action as a US Navy ship during the Vietnam War. In 1970 she was transferred to the South Vietnam Navy, but after the fall of Saigon in 1975 she fell into Philippine possession. In 1999, the dilapidated Sierra Madre was deliberately abandoned on this reef 100 kilometers off the coast of the Philippines.
Sierra Madre Abandoned Aground on Second Thomas Reef in South China Sea
As our small fishing boat approached, we could see rusty holes in the Sierra Madre’s hull. It looked like the next typhoon would wash it away.
Nearly a decade later, the Sierra Madre has managed to maintain its shape, but rust and concrete stand out more than steel. And even now, a small unit of the Philippine Coast Guard still lives in this precarious place.
China’s sabotage of the Philippine Coast Guard may also violate international law. No matter what the Chinese government says, the waters around the rusty Sierra Madre are not Chinese territorial waters.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, ruled unequivocally that China’s claim to the South China Sea, also known as the “nine-dash line,” has no basis in international law.
Of course, things are not so simple.
Numerous parties claim territorial rights over islands, reefs and waters in the South China Sea and dispute each other’s claims. The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia all claim overlapping sovereignty over this small stretch of water. And most claims lack international legal support.
The rocks on which the Sierra Madre of the Philippines is stranded are called Second Thomas Reef in English, Ayungin Reef in Tagalog, and Ren’ai Reef in Chinese. However, this reef is not land, and possession of this reef does not increase the country’s territorial waters or expand its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The South China Sea has almost no land. Even the most disputed Spratly Islands have a handful of small islands. The largest is Taiping Island, which is only 1,000 meters long and 400 meters wide.
By historical coincidence, Taiping Island is owned by Taiwan. The second largest is Paguaça, which is also large enough to be circumnavigated in about 30 minutes. The Philippines seized the island in 1971 when Taiwanese troops stationed there withdrew to escape a strong typhoon. Vietnam also owns some of these lands.
On the other hand, China, whose Cultural Revolution was raging in the country in the 1960s and 1970s, missed an opportunity and could not obtain a decent land. So we decided to make our own land.
In 2014, Mischief Reef, some 40 kilometers away, began a major reclamation project while several Philippine Coast Guard personnel waited on the rusty deck of the Sierra Madre. One of the world’s largest dredgers sucked up millions of tons of pebbles and sand to create a large artificial island on the reef.
The artificial island built by China on Mischief Reef fell within the Philippines’ internationally recognized 200 nautical mile EEZ.
The artificial island is not recognized by international law and does not give China 20 kilometers of water around the island. That doesn’t stop China from using its large coast guard and navy warships to push its own agenda, drive off Filipino fishermen, and provoke the Philippine Coast Guard.
China’s artificial islands have been dubbed “facts on the ground” by military strategy experts. It means that it is real, not an abstract legal concept.
The Philippine government fears China’s ambitions extend beyond Mischief Reef. Ayungin Reef may be next. That is why the rusty hull of the Sierra Madre takes on such symbolic importance.