The Philippines has released a video of the Chinese coast guard continuing to operate in the waters off the Southeast Asian country's main island of Luzon after more than two months.
Newsweek reached out to the Philippine coast guard and Chinese foreign ministry by email with requests for comment.
Why It Matters
Since early January, China's coast guard has been deploying ships to an area west of Zambales province in a show of force. These waters are closer to a major Philippine island than the reefs that have typically been the focus of the neighbors' territorial dispute and well within the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—where maritime law grants Manila the sole rights to natural resources.
China asserts sovereignty over upwards of 90 percent of the South China Sea, putting the country at loggerheads not just with the Philippines, but several other neighbors with competing claims.
What to Know
The footage from the Philippine coast guard shows the 144-foot BRP Cabra on Saturday sailing a short distance away from China Coast Guard 3105—a vessel three times its size.
"Despite adverse sea conditions with wave heights exceeding 3-5 meters (10-16 feet), the BRP Cabra has effectively kept the larger vessel at a distance of more than 95 nautical miles (109 miles) off the coast of Zambales, preventing its approach to the coastline," Jay Tarriela, a spokesperson for the Philippine agency, wrote on X.
"The Philippine Coast Guard continues to challenge the illegal presence of the China Coast Guard, emphasizing that their actions violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Philippines Maritime Zones Act, and the 2016 Arbitral Award," Tarriela said.
"The PCG remains steadfast in upholding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s commitment to ensuring that not a square inch of Philippine territory is surrendered to any foreign power," he added.
A Hague-based arbitral court in 2016 ruled in favor of the Philippines and largely rejected Beijing's South China Sea claims. China refused to participate in the proceedings and maintains the award is invalid.
Beijing has accused the Philippines, a U.S. defense treaty ally, of being a pawn in U.S. efforts to contain China, with China's top diplomat Wang Yi saying Friday the South China Sea dispute is effectively a "shadow play" to smear China.
CCG-3105 was approximately 115 miles east of Luzon on Friday afternoon, ship-tracking data showed.
What People Are Saying
Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippine defense secretary, told theStraits Times in February: "What China is doing is trying to bully everybody into acquiescing [to] its version of international law, which is an improper use of force, actually, under the United Nations Charter [...] China's refusal to join or to combat in the legal arena is the best proof that it knows that it is in the wrong and that it knows it will lose. That is why they don't want to participate."
What's Next
Beijing and Manila are fully entrenched in their positions and unlikely to resolve the issue soon.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations have stressed that Washington remains committed to its seven-decade old Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines. The country is one of only a handful continuing to receive U.S. military aid amid the 90-day freeze on foreign assistance ordered by President Donald Trump.
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This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM.