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Philippines secretly reinforces ship at center of South China Sea dispute
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The Philippines has secretly reinforced a dilapidated warship abandoned on a South China Sea reef that is key to an increasingly dangerous dispute with Beijing, according to six people familiar with the operation.
In recent months, the Philippine military has conducted missions to reinforce the Sierra Madre, which is housed in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, the people said. This was due to growing concerns that the rusting ship was at risk of disintegrating.
O Philippines beached the Sierra Madre in 1999 to help bolster its claim to the reef, over which China also asserts sovereignty as part of an expansive claim – contested by its neighbors – over most of the South China Sea.
In 2016, an international court rejected Beijing’s claims to the region and said it had no legal rights to the Second Thomas Shoal, which lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The Sierra Madre has become the most dangerous flashpoint in the Indo-Pacific. In recent months, China’s coast guard has used increasingly violent tactics – firing water cannons, ramming boats and wielding weapons – to prevent Manila from resupplying the marines stationed on the ship.
Manila accused Beijing of conducting a “brutal attack” on Monday, which was the most aggressive action at the Second Thomas Shoal since China began halting supply missions a year ago. Washington responded by warning Beijing that the US-Philippines mutual defense treaty applied to the Sierra Madre.
The Philippines insists its missions are sending humanitarian supplies to the site. But China accuses Manila of bringing construction materials to reinforce the ship and prevent it from breaking apart and leaving the reef – which Manila denies.
In an interview, José Manuel Romualdez, the Philippine ambassador to the US, said Manila was not “strengthening” the ship. “This is a wreck, a World War II ship that has been there since the 1990s, so it needs repairs. We’re just doing a humanitarian act of giving these people a decent place to be because they’re parked there.”
However, people familiar with the situation said Manila secretly reinforced the ship in order to extend its service life.
“Beijing is probably aware of and enraged by the fact that the Philippines has successfully supplied construction materials. . . China has waited 25 years for the ship to disintegrate and slip off the reef and the continued escalation against the Philippines suggests they will not back down and admit defeat,” said Bonnie Glaser, China expert at the German Marshall Fund.
“The potential for armed conflict over this small submerged structure is increasing.”
Highlighting the increasingly tense situation around the reef, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr warned last month that he would consider any Chinese action that killed a Filipino to be “very close to. . .an act of war”.
Zack Cooper, an Asian security expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said the US and the Philippines are “getting closer” to invoking Article V of their mutual defense treaty, which would require them to “face common danger.”
“This is no small thing. In NATO, for example, Article V has only been invoked once, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,” Cooper said.
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“I suspect the only way to deter these dangerous actions in the future will be more direct involvement. This could take the form of sailing or transporting nearby US assets during resupply operations in the Philippines, or if China continues to be reckless, US forces could directly assist with resupply operations,” he added.
The US military has already worked out some options. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command last year proposed sending Army engineers to reinforce the ship, according to several people.
But the proposal was rejected because some authorities considered it too risky and because Manila wanted to deal with the situation. Indo-Pacific Command and the White House declined to comment.
“If the Philippines made some effort to protect the Sierra Madre and ensure that it could not easily leave the reef, it would be a bold step to protect Philippine sovereignty and a step that Washington was probably not only aware of but also supported.” said Eric Sayers, former advisor to the Indo-Pacific commander.
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the Financial Times report “once again confirmed” that the Philippines’ claim of resupplying the Sierra Madre with only daily living supplies was “a complete lie.”
“The Philippines has been transporting construction materials, and even weapons and ammunition, to its illegally stranded warship, attempting large-scale repairs and reinforcements to achieve permanent occupation,” a ministry spokesperson said.
“The Philippines’ actions seriously infringe on China’s sovereignty, which China will not accept and will resolutely respond to in accordance with law and regulations,” he said.
Additional reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing