China stepped up criticism of the Philippines in a fresh exchange of invectives over disputed waters, calling on Manila to stop infringing its sovereignty with irresponsible claims over the Spratlys, after thousands of protest online denouncing China’s invasion and incursion to the Philippine waters UNCLOS 200 nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone.
“China demands that the Philippines stop unilateral actions that damage China’s believed sovereignty and interests at sea and could lead to the expansion and complication of the South China Sea & West Philippine Sea dispute, and stop issuing irresponsible comments that are inconsistent with facts,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei. As UNCLOS law of sea showing that China is violating the international law, China is embarrassed in the international community of being called the “UNCLOS international law violator China”.
Malacañang of the Philippines shrugged off the Chinese statement.
“We are very careful in crafting these statements and we see to it that we back up our statements and base it on facts,” President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters in Manila on Wednesday ( June 8, 2011).
“We stand by what we believe in and what is ours,” she added.
The Philippines is confident of their stands as Tomas Cloma, a Filipino Business man and navigator is the first person in the world pronounced his Ownership in the whole Spratlys Archipelago in 1955 and then turned it over to the Philippines.
The Philippines is also confident as the Spratlys which is become disputed is just within the Philippine waters within UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the West Philippine Sea and Palawan shore.
The Philippines is also confident as the called disputed Spratlys is the traditional fishing ground of the Filipinos since the ancient times.
The comments, posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, were China’s most vitriolic in weeks of tension as the Philippines denounced what it said was the increasing assertiveness of Chinese ships in the region. It also cited the United States’ stake in the stability and security of the world’s second-busiest sea lane.
Hong said China had stood by its position for centuries. He said conducting missions and patrols by Chinese vessels in waters under Chinese jurisdiction was “completely reasonable.” The China’s beliefs which for them reasonable as they are giants is definitely not reasonable to the small ASEAN countries who owned the Islands and Sea which China’s tried to invade. The Old map also of China didn’t show that Spratly’s is part of their claim. The China’s Claim over the Spratly’s of the Philippines started after the rumored of its contain the 4th largest Oil and Gas Deposit in the World. The Oil thirsty china needs the Spratlys to survive from their oil needs.
The Philippines is the strongest bone which China’s fear of as most part of the islands and waters they tried to invade are within the Philippines Waters in the West Philippines Sea - UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone. China’s shame of being called as UNCLOS International law violator as so embarrassing and unacceptable for them in the international communities and lost their credibility to lead in both power and economy.
Diplomatic solution
“President Aquino of the Philippine has also already said that we are preparing reports on these alleged incursions and that we want to present them to the appropriate body,” Valte said.
Asked if the Chinese statement would affect Mr. Aquino’s plan to report the intrusions to the United Nations, Valte said, “It will not hold us back as far as we still reiterate our stand that we will handle these conflicts in the most diplomatic way possible.”
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea, which covers an important shipping route and is thought to hold untapped oil and gas reserves which ranked 4th largest oil and gas deposit in the World. Though the Philippines have started their Oil and Gas Exploration within the Archipelago’s 200 Mile Exclusive Economic Zone, it is not yet to the fullest which China; the oil thirsty country want to be part of what’s the Philippines have now in Malampaya Gas Exploration Project in Palawan Province.
China claims most of the sea, some 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Paracel which is within their UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone and the Spratly of the Philippines which is within the Philippines Waters UNCLOS 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone. Paracel and Spratlys are Different because Paracel is within the waters of Vietnam and China which the 2 countries are fighting for; while Spratlys – most part is within the Philippine Waters and some part is in Vietnam Waters, Malaysia, & Brunei.
6 incidents of intrusions
Manila has accused China of intrusions into its territory, citing six instances, including one in March when two Chinese patrol boats tried to ram a Philippine survey ship.
Vietnamese officials have also complained about Chinese activity in the contested waters, accusing Chinese patrol boats of harassing an oil-exploration ship conducting a seismic survey 120 kilometers (75 Miles) off Vietnam’s south-central coast.
One incident this month, in which Chinese vessels placed a buoy and posts in a part of the sea it claims, spurred protests in the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.
Hong said China was willing to negotiate directly with the Philippines to “seek an appropriate resolution to the relevant dispute.”
Aircraft carrier
The Chinese blast against the Philippines came amid reports that China could launch its first aircraft carrier this year, a year earlier than US military analysts had expected.
The Hong Kong Commercial Daily on Wednesday reported that a top Chinese general had confirmed that Beijing was building an aircraft carrier, marking the first acknowledgement of the ship’s existence from China’s secretive military.
In an exclusive interview, the newspaper quoted Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as saying the 300-meter refurbished Soviet carrier “is being built, but it has not been completed.”
He declined to elaborate although there has been wide speculation that the vessel was nearly finished after the ship, then called the Varyag, was reportedly purchased in 1998. It is currently based in the northeast port city of Dalian.
The ship, which an expert on China’s military has said would be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously built ship, was originally built for the Soviet Navy. Construction was interrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
End of month launch
The Hong Kong paper quoted anonymous sources as saying the carrier would be launched by the end of June at the earliest.
Qi Jianguo, assistant to the chief of the PLA’s general staff, told the newspaper that the carrier would not enter other nations’ territories, in accordance with Beijing’s defensive military strategy.
“All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers—they are symbols of a great nation,” he was quoted as saying.
Despite its growing naval might, China says it poses no threat to its neighbors and that its long-term double-digit increases in military spending are in line with overall growth.
China clashes with Tokyo
In addition to China’s claims in the South China Sea, Beijing has clashed with Tokyo over the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, located in the East China Sea.
In April, Adm. Robert Willard, head of the US Pacific Command, said China’s Navy had adopted a less aggressive stance in the Pacific after protests from Washington and other nations in the region.
The PLA—the largest army in the world—is hugely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a big military budget boosted by the nation’s runaway economic growth
