From the Wall Street Journal, June 20:
‘Only Pirates Do This’: China Wields Axes and Knives in South China Sea Fight
The Chinese coast guard used dangerous new tactics in latest confrontation, the Philippine military says
The Chinese coast guard came in small boats with axes, long knives and spears.
They used the crude weapons to slash and puncture the Philippine military’s rubber craft. One Chinese boat rammed a Philippine boat at high speed, severing the thumb of a Filipino seaman who was holding on to the side of his ride.
During Monday’s frantic events in the South China Sea, the Chinese coast guard crew also boarded a Philippine boat, smashed its outboard motor and communications equipment, and grabbed the Filipino crew’s cellphones. They seized seven disassembled rifles that were packed in cases for delivery to a Philippine outpost, the Philippine military said.
“Only pirates do this,” said Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the Philippine military’s chief of staff. “Only pirates board, steal, and destroy ships, equipment and belongings.”
The incident, described by the Philippine armed forces, marked a sharp escalation in China’s use of forceful tactics and intimidation against a U.S. ally in the South China Sea. Its coast guard had never wielded bladed weapons and spears in its previous sea confrontations with the Philippines.
While the Taiwan Strait is seen as the main flashpoint in the great-power rivalry between the U.S. and China, the turmoil in the South China Sea is raising a potentially nearer-term risk of conflict between the two countries.
The U.S. and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty that extends to armed attacks on Filipino forces in the South China Sea. After Monday’s incident, the Pentagon called China’s behavior provocative, reckless and unnecessary, and said it could lead to something bigger and more violent. The U.S. stands with its ally, it said.
The confrontation took place at Second Thomas Shoal, which has become the region’s most volatile hot spot. The Philippines maintains an unusual military outpost there—a dilapidated warship, the Sierra Madre, which it ran aground 25 years ago to stake its claim. A small detachment of Filipino marines is stationed on the ship. China claims the site, as it does much of the South China Sea.
For more than a year, tensions have spiraled around the submerged reef and the rust-covered ship that sits on top of it. The Philippines has faced off against China’s coast guard, which is big and well equipped—and willing to use aggressive tactics to enforce Beijing’s claims.
While past encounters have largely involved Chinese coast guard ships hitting Philippine vessels with water cannons and ramming them, there remained a degree of physical separation between the two sides’ personnel operating aboard their respective vessels. The latest incident, however, has brought them in much closer contact.
The Philippines said its crew defended themselves with only their bare hands.
The Chinese coast guard said that in Monday’s incident a Philippine supply ship dangerously approached and collided with Chinese ships that were sailing normally.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the Philippines has been trying to send construction materials, weapons and ammunition to the grounded warship for the “long-term occupation” of Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines should seek the Chinese government’s permission before sending any ships that way, it said.
It isn’t hard to see how encounters such as the one that occurred Monday could result in the death of a Filipino, spark a conflict and potentially draw the U.S. into the fight. If that happened, Washington and the Philippines would be forced to confront tough decisions that would have broader reverberations, including on the credibility of U.S. alliance commitments in the region.
Ties between the U.S. and the Philippines are at their strongest in years, increasing the pressure on Washington to come to its ally’s aid if called. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has doubled down on the alliance and pushed back against China.
Speaking recently at a Singapore security conference, Marcos drew a red line. “If a Filipino citizen is killed by a willful act, that is, I think, very very close to what we define as an act of war,” he said.
“We already have suffered injury but, thank God, we have not yet gotten to the point where any of our participants, civilian or otherwise, have been killed,” he said. If that happens, “we would have crossed the Rubicon,” he said....
Related June 9: "Philippines Rejects ‘Absurd’ Beijing Demand Over South China Sea".
The Chinese Coast Guard has been low-key confrontational with the Philippines recently in part to enforce their "Nine-Dash-Line" claim (shown here with many more dashes):
For years we've been pointing out that some of the Chinese Coast Guard ships are larger than American guided missile cruisers. Not frigates. Not destroyers. Bigger than friggen' cruisers:
"Beijing Builds ‘Monster’ Ship for Patrolling the South China Sea"
From The Diplomat:
According to Chinese state media, the ship will be the largest coast guard vessel in the world.
