China and the Philippines have launched a war of words after their coastguards challenged each other in the waters off the Batanes Islands, an area that has become the latest maritime flashpoint as Beijing ramps up pressure against Manila-Tokyo delimitation efforts.
The Philippine coastguard said on Thursday it had sent one of its biggest vessels and an aircraft to “disrupt and drive away” a Chinese research ship – the Jia Hai Ke 7 – which has been operating in the waters off the islands over the past several days.
“At 7.55am, BRP Teresa Magbanua closed in on Jia Hai Ke 7 to less than 100 yards (91 metres) and launched a rigid-hull inflatable boat to disrupt the research vessel’s illegal marine scientific research and compel it to leave the area,” coastguard spokesman Jay Tarriela said in a post on social media.
The Jia Hai Ke 7 has spent more than a week conducting operations near the Philippines’ Batanes archipelago, located between the country’s Luzon island and Taiwan.
Footage posted by Tarriela showed the Philippine coastguard issuing radio warnings and one of its inflatable boats circling the Chinese vessel.
He added that the coastguard aircraft, the PCG Islander 251, circled the area several times at low altitude to support the operation, vowing to continue to “challenge, disrupt and drive away the survey vessel until it leaves Philippine waters”.
During the operation, a Chinese coastguard vessel “abruptly” arrived in the area to shield the survey ship and moved towards the Philippine ship while repeatedly issuing radio challenges, Tarriela said.
The Philippine ship then “shadowed” the Chinese coastguard vessel from about 1,000 yards away while remaining close to the research ship, he added.
He said the presence of the Chinese coastguard “raises serious questions about who Jia Hai Ke 7 is really working for” and “what data the vessel has collected over the country’s undersea cable corridors”.
In response, Beijing denounced Manila’s “harassment” and insisted its research vessel was conducting “normal operations in waters under Chinese jurisdiction” in accordance with international law.
“China has taken, and will continue to take, resolute measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Guo Wei, deputy spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Manila, said in a social media post on Thursday.
Guo also urged the Philippines to cease its “provocative interference with China’s normal scientific research activities”.
Tarriela fired back on social media, telling Guo to stop “meddling” and saying that the Philippine coastguard “will continue to oppose and drive away Chinese research vessels that have no right to study our own seas without permission!”
Data recorded via the vessel’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) for September, tracked by MarineTraffic, revealed that the Jia Hai Ke 7 research ship departed from Xiamen on China’s southeastern coast on September 19, arrived near Itbayat in the province of Batanes on September 22.
The Philippine coastguard confirmed the survey ship’s presence on Monday. Tarriela said the vessel was around 38 nautical miles (70km) northwest of Itbayat and displaying behaviour inconsistent with innocent passage.
“Rather than steaming on a steady course and speed, Jia Hai Ke 7 has been loitering and holding position in the same area – the movement pattern of a vessel conducting marine scientific research, not transit,” Tarriela previously said on social media.
The vessel’s presence has stirred concerns in Manila over critical subsea telecommunications cables traversing the seabed of the Luzon Strait, which connect Southeast Asia to North America and northeast Asia.
Philippine aerial patrols issued three radio challenges demanding that the ship declare its mission and cease unauthorised surveys, but received no response.
The deployment comes amid heightened friction over the Batanes Islands.
Some Chinese researchers argued in June that the islands were a natural geographical extension of Taiwan and therefore fell under Chinese sovereignty. The assertion is not officially endorsed by Beijing.
The ship’s deployment has also raised concerns over China’s use of research vessels to assert claims, map seabed terrain for potential military applications, and gather intelligence on undersea infrastructure in disputed waters.
Beijing’s concerns about the area have risen following Manila and Tokyo’s decision in May to launch formal negotiations on delimiting their overlapping exclusive economic zones and continental shelves.
Beijing said the bilateral initiative was unlawful and void, arguing that the waters formed part of Chinese maritime zones projected from Taiwan.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, Japan and the Philippines, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state.
The state-run Global Times said the Jia Hai Ke 7 was conducting “legitimate and lawful” offshore marine geological surveys and scientific investigations in waters under Chinese jurisdiction.
“By forcibly overstretching the concept of security and militarising civilian research, the Philippines not only interferes with China’s normal navigation and scientific operations, but also deliberately stokes regional tension,” the newspaper said.
According to the China Classification Society, the 70-metre (230-foot) vessel is China’s first privately owned research ship equipped with a Dynamic Positioning Class 2 system, tailored for precision station-keeping and offshore marine geological surveys.
It was built for Zhuhai Jiahai Marine Technology Co and entered service in April last year.
The incident marks the latest in a pattern of Chinese research vessel deployments to sensitive maritime areas that have generated controversy across the region.
These operations typically involve research activities inside the exclusive economic zones and contested waters near Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan.
Since May, mainland Chinese research vessels have appeared in waters east of Taiwan on multiple occasions, raising alarms in Taipei.
Last month, the Philippine Coast Guard accused another Chinese survey vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 10, of conducting “illegal” operations for 25 days within the Philippine exclusive economic zone, including the territorial sea of Scarborough Shoal. The disputed shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines, has become a frequent maritime flashpoint in South China Sea disputes between Beijing and Manila.
Manila also said the Haiyang Dizhi 10 occasionally switched off its AIS transponder in what it described as an attempt to evade detection.
Meanwhile, the Chinese coastguard patrolled the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal and Sabina Shoal on Thursday, marking the country’s National Day holiday with a display of its claim to the South China Sea regions. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
