A Chinese Coast Guard vessel is pictured on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea March 29, 2014.
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“The US has been building up its military presence in the South China Sea and its neighboring region, carrying out highly-targeted military drills, and sending military vessels and aircraft to conduct frequent close-in surveillance against regional countries all year round”.
Speaking in Beijing Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Hong Lei confirmed its vessels were at Jackson Atoll to salvage a ship that had run aground in the area and was abandoned by its owner at the end of a year ago.
Filipino, Vietnamese and Malaysian fishing boats have gone to the vast fishing lagoon Jackson for years, Bito-onon said, adding that Filipino fishermen were looking forward to the start of the octopus-catching season that starts next month. “We don’t want them using… their navy to intimidate other fishing vessels in that region”. “We know there are Chinese ships moving around the Spratly area”.
He has said those Chinese warnings are an act of intimidation and show the threat to freedom of overflight in the region.
The United States, for a long time, has been stepping up military deployment in and near the South China sea, holding military exercises as well as mobilizing military warships to spy on other countries.
“We are still verifying these reports”, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, a Philippines military spokesman, told Reuters.
“It is not true at all that the arbitral tribunal may decide on the Philippine side in the face of China’s excepting itself from the application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS Articles 297 and 298)”, she said.
“There are no indications China will build structures or develop it into an island”, said the source, who was not authorised to speak to the media about the South China Sea.
The Philippines Star newspaper, which earlier reported the story, quoted an unidentified fisherman as saying Chinese boats chased them away when they tried to enter the area last week.
Batongbacal said the court would not compel China to remove the artificial islands.
China asserts its sovereignty over all most all of South China Sea which is disputed by Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
“What the United States has done has intensified tensions and is most likely to cause militarisation in the South China Sea”, Hong said, reiterating that China is firm in its determination and resolve to maintain its territorial sovereignty and maritime interests.
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Philippine planes landing and taking off at Thitu have also been warned frequently to stay away by Chinese forces based at the nearby Subi Reef, one of seven reefs in the disputed Spratlys that China has transformed into islands in the last two years using dredged sand.
