Manila Reacts After China Reportedly Builds Land Features on Philippine Territory

The Philippines is on high alert after a report asserting that China is building up unoccupied land features in the Spratly Islands on territory claimed by the Philippines.

The report, published last month in Bloomberg News, would represent an unprecedented escalation in Chinese efforts to bolster its claims in the South China Sea.

In the past, Beijing has militarized disputed land features with infrastructure such as ports and runways, but it’s done so in territory China already occupies. However, Western officials told Bloomberg they have observed images of China building out at least four unoccupied features in waters claimed by the Philippines, to the west of Palawan island.

According to the report, fishing fleets carried out land reclamation activities at the four features, expanding some sand bars and other formations to at least 10 times their previous size. One image from 2014 shows a Chinese vessel offloading an amphibious hydraulic excavator, used for land reclamation, at Eldad Reef.

China’s Foreign Ministry has denied the report, saying it is “purely made out of thin air.”

The Philippine Foreign Ministry, however, said it was “seriously concerned” by the report. “We have asked relevant Philippine agencies to verify and validate the contents of this report,” it said.

Days later, the Philippine defense ministry ordered the military “to strengthen the country’s presence in the West Philippine Sea,” using the Philippine name for the area of the South China Sea it claims.

“Any encroachment in the West Philippine Sea or reclamation on the features therein is a threat to the security of Pagasa Island,” it said, using the Philippine name for disputed Thitu Island. The defense ministry did not specify the Chinese activities it had witnessed, but said that its air and naval patrols had observed “China militia vessels” in areas it claims.

In 2016, a United Nations tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case brought under the administration of President Benigno Aquino, judging that most of China’s claims to the international waters were unlawful – including land reclamation activities within its “nine-dash line” of maritime sovereignty. China declared the ruling “null and void” and has largely ignored it.

For a time, so did the Philippines, as previous President Rodrigo Duterte sought closer ties with Beijing, signing numerous agreements for China to fund big-ticket Philippine infrastructure projects as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Duterte frequently asserted that the Philippines could do little about China’s activities in its waters, drawing the ire of nationalistic Filipinos and higher-ups in his own military.

But in the latter years of Duterte’s time in power, as Chinese funding dried up amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he began embracing the long-time Philippine alliance with the United States and allowed his cabinet officials to take a harder line toward Chinese maritime activities in the South China Sea.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took power in June, has mostly continued that policy, forging close ties with the United States while defending Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea. Although he made early overtures toward China, indicating he’d be willing to look the other way on maritime disputes in exchange for favorable investment deals, he’s been uncompromising since taking office and has frequently criticized Beijing for failing to make good on its previous investment promises.

Marcos has also pledged to explore for oil and gas in the South China Sea – and, while he indicated during his campaign that he’d like to work with China to do so, he recently said the Philippines would be willing to go it alone without Beijing’s help, a move that would likely anger China.

In early December, the Philippines protested when two Chinese vessels were seen in two reefs near Reed Bank, an area where the countries had discussed exploring for oil and gas before those talks cratered in June, shortly before Duterte left office.

The Biden administration has appeared happy to support a more assertive Philippine approach, after the United States frequently found itself at odds with Duterte.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris voiced Washington’s support for Philippine claims in the South China Sea during a three-day visit to the Philippines in November, although her trip became better known for an awkward photo-op with Philippine fishermen on Palawan.

In December, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the country was building up a lethal force posture in the Indo-Pacific region. Marcos has also said the Philippines will announce “something more concrete” in the near future about allowing the U.S. to access more Philippine military bases under the existing 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.