US warns China over missiles deployed on 3 PH reefs

WASHINGTON—The White House has warned that China would face “consequences” for its military buildup in contested waters in the western Pacific following reports that the Chinese had installed missiles on three disputed reefs in the South China Sea.

“We’re well aware of China’s militarization of the South China Sea,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Thursday.

“We’ve raised concerns directly with the Chinese about this and there will be near-term and long-term consequences,” Sanders did not say what the consequences would be.

The South China Sea is subject to a myriad of competing territorial claims. In recent years China has upped the ante, seizing islets and atolls in the face of protests and bellicose warnings.

Malacañang on Friday expressed concerns over the reported Chinese missile deployments on Kagitingan, Zamora and Panganiban, three of seven Philippine-claimed reefs that China had seized and transformed into artificial islands.

The three reefs are internationally known as Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs, respectively. They are among the marine features in the Spratly archipelago that are disputed by China and the Philippines and three other Southeast Asian nations—

Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. Taiwan, like China, claims all of the Spratlys.

“We are concerned with the reported China’s missile deployments over the contested areas in the West Philippine Sea,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday.

Close relationship

Roque added, however, that with Manila’s “recently developed close relationship and friendship with China, we are confident that those missiles are not directed at us.”

“Be that as it may, we would explore all diplomatic means to address this issue,” he said.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the government was taking the reported missile deployment “seriously.”

“We’re verifying the information,” he told reporters on Friday, adding that the country would carry out “every and all diplomatic action” to safeguard Philippine territory.

Diplomatic protest

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio said the Duterte administration should lodge a formal diplomatic protest against the missile deployment on the three reefs.

“This is necessary to preserve the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Philippines over these areas,” Carpio said in a text message to the Inquirer.

‘Defense’ facilities

He pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping had reneged on his promise in 2015 to then US President Barack Obama that China would avoid militarizing its artificial islands in the Spratlys.

“China has just broken that promise by installing long-range antiship cruise and antiaircraft missiles on these artificial islands. Filipinos must judge China by its actions, not by its promises of friendship to the Philippines,” he said.

Beijing on Thursday reasserted its right to build “defense” facilities in the disputed region, but declined to confirm reports it had installed new missiles on artificial islands it had built.

Washington and other western countries have insisted that disputes must be settled legally and that freedom of navigation be respected.

US network CNBC reported on Wednesday that the Chinese military installed antiship and air-to-air defenses on outposts over the last 30 days, citing sources close to US intelligence.

Philippines’ EEZ

The missile installations meant that China has deployed weapons within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to Alexander Neill, Shangri-la Dialogue senior fellow for Asia-Pacific security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“In practice, China now has the capability to deny the Philippines access in the air or at sea to the islands and reefs it claims,” Neill told the Inquirer.

The ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2016, which invalidated China’s expansive claims over the South China Sea, also gave the Philippines sovereign rights over Panganiban Reef. Beijing has refused to acknowledge the verdict.

In a speech on Friday in Davao City, Mr. Duterte said he “can’t let my administration pass without insisting” on the international tribunal’s ruling, but now is “not the time.”

“China can stay there for the moment,” he added.

Existential threat

Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, who was one of Manila’s advocates in the arbitral case, said China’s militarization of the South China Sea was an “existential threat to the Philippines and is inimical to the national interest.”

He also urged the Duterte administration, which had warmed Manila’s ties with Beijing, to “strongly protest this latest aggression and reawaken (the) desire to rebuild alliances with friends and neighbors who share a strong interest in restraining China’s illegal acts.”

Carpio, the leading legal luminary in the country’s fight for control over the West Philippine Sea, said the international tribunal had declared the reefs as belonging to the Philippines since they were within the country’s EEZ.

Professor Jay Batongbacal, director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said the missile deployment “marks a provocative step on the part of China and a significant escalation of the SCS disputes.”

‘United position’

He called on “smaller littoral states” to meet and forge a “united position” and “convene with external powers to agree on actions that protect all their common interests.”

In addition to land-reclamation efforts on reefs it controls and building civilian facilities there, China also has air bases, radar and communications systems, naval facilities and defensive weaponry in place, including landing strips able to accommodate military planes.

While the United States takes no position on the sovereignty claims, it has raised concerns that Beijing is “militarizing” the South China Sea.

“China has to realize that they’ve benefited from the free navigation of the sea, and the US Navy has been the guarantor of that,” Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said. “We will continue to do our operations.”

‘Encash political capital’

If the reported missile deployment were true, Sen. Gregorio Honasan said the Philippines should “maintain high moral political ground by invoking the arbitral ruling, international law, Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), etc.”

Honasan also suggested that the Philippines rally support from its allies with whom it has an array of economic and security arrangements, including the Mutual Defense Treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Mr. Duterte should now leverage  his “warm personal relationship” with Chinese leaders in convincing them to cease militarizing the illegally reclaimed islands in the West Philippine Sea.

“He has to encash whatever political capital he has with Beijing in asking it to honor its pledge to keep the WPS (West Philippine Sea) a zone of peace and freedom of navigation,” Recto said in a statement. —REPORTS FROM MARLON RAMOS, JULIE M. AURELIO, FRANCES MANGOSING, JODEE A. AGONCILLO, DJ YAP, ALLAN NAWAL AND AFP