The reports said that a clash occurred at Scarborough Shoal, an area China seized control of after a three-month stand-off with the Philippine coast guard in 2012.
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The journalists, representing CNN, Al-Jazeera TV, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, Bloomberg, Kyodo News Agency and the Yomiuri Shimbun, were invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to take part in the one-day trip.
China claims nearly all of the sea, including some islands now controlled by the Philippines.
Ma said the strengthening of the alliance is actually aimed at China, with the United States taking a clearly biased approach in favor of China’s rival claimants in the sea’s territorial disputes.
China’s South China Sea territorial claims are demarcated in vague terms by the nine-dash line, a U-shaped boundary that loops down from Taiwan as far as Indonesia’s Natuna Islands.
China claims nearly the entirety of the oil and gas-rich South China Sea, where $5 trillion worth of trade-borne ships pass through every year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the the deal should not jeopardize other nations’ security interests and sovereignty and not be targeted at any third party. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
The locations are at Antonio Bautista Air Base on western Palawan island, which faces the hotly disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea; Lumbia Air Base on southern Mindanao island; Basa Air Base and Fort Magsaysay, north of the capital, Manila; and Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base on Cebu. “That puts them much closer to the scene where the Chinese are using what we consider to be illegitimate activities”, he said.
The EDCA was originally signed on 28 April 2014, however, it took until 18 March this year for the two countries to announce specifics about which bases the United States will store military supplies and maintain a rotational presence.
Canberra will continue to send ships and planes to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight in the disputed South China Sea.
The latest development comes amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea over China’s land reclamation and over its claims over vast areas of an important shipping corridor.
“With the (March 19) incident we feel interrupted and sabotaged in our efforts”, Pudjiastuti said.
Han said that by singing the high praise of the alliance, the United States is trying to support Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who needs to convince his people of the merits of the defense agreement.
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Goldberg said the U.S.is not establishing its own bases as it had in the Philippines until 1992.
