Philippines summons Chinese envoy over 'illegal intrusion' in inland waters

The Philippines said on Monday it had summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest a Chinese navy ship's "illegal intrusion" in archipelagic waters over which the Southeast Asian country says it has complete sovereignty.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Ambassador Huang Xilian was summoned by the Acting Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro over the activities of a Chinese naval surveillance ship between January 29 to February 1.

"Acting Undersecretary Lazaro demanded that China respect Philippine territory and maritime jurisdiction, and to comply with its obligations under international law, particularly UNCLOS, and direct its vessels to desist from entering Philippine waters uninvited and without permission," the DFA said in a statement.

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There was no immediate reaction from Ambassador Huang or the Chinese embassy.

The DFA did not say why it was issuing the demarche to the Chinese envoy some six weeks after the incident. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin retweeted the DFA statement published on Twitter.

In its statement, the department said the Dongdiao-class Chinese navy Electronic Reconnaissance Ship with bow number 792 entered Philippine waters without permission, lingered for three days in the Sulu Sea - an inland sea which lies between the islands of Mindanao and Palawan and reached "the waters of Palawan's Cuyo Group of Islands and Apo Island in Mindoro".

The Philippine Navy vessel BRP Antonio Luna subsequently challenged the Chinese vessel "which alleged that it was exercising innocent passage," the DFA statement said.

For four continuous days, it ignored the demands "repeatedly directed by the BRP Antonio Luna to leave Philippine waters immediately."

The area traversed by the Chinese navy ship is separated by the island of Palawan from the South China Sea, where Beijing has in turn demarcated its vast claim with the Nine-Dash Line.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Beijing and other claimants of the South China Sea dispute are party to, has a section pertaining to "archipelagic states" that indicates that "the sovereignty of an archipelagic state extends to the waters enclosed by the archipelagic baselines."

In the case of the Philippines, it has drawn its archipelagic baseline to enclose the island of Palawan, including the inland waters known as the Sulu Sea.

Reacting to the DFA's statement on Twitter, naval expert Collin Koh of Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies raised the possibility of the Chinese navy's actions becoming "the new normal, unless coastal states respond vigorously".

Filipino security analyst Jose Antonio Custodio told This Week in Asia the episode was a display of how "China has no respect for international law".

"They believe the Philippines has no resolve at all and these Chinese actions will be swept under the rug by [President Rodrigo Duterte] himself," added Custodio, a non-resident fellow of the Manila think tank ADR Stratbase institute. The Duterte government, through the DFA, has issued over a hundred diplomatic protests against China over its actions in the areas of the South China Sea that China claims, but observers say these have had little to no effect.

Along with the Philippines, other claimants in the South China Sea dispute such as Malaysia and Vietnam have in recent years contended with increased Chinese activity in waters they deem as their own.

Beijing rejects the claims of the Southeast Asian nations, saying it has maritime and territorial rights over 85 per cent of the resource-rich waters, citing historic rights over the area.

The Southeast Asian claimants and China are currently negotiating a code of conduct over the row.

On March 5, Huang the Chinese envoy in Manila, had said in a speech that "in the spirit of mutual understanding, China will address differences through friendly consultation with the Philippines".

"It is normal for China and the Philippines to have differences as neighbours, what matters is how we handle them properly," Huang said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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