Philippines Says CCP’s Claim to South China Sea Reef Is Disinformation, Warfare

‘Their illegal presence, coercive, and aggressive actions, and deceptive messaging have been in play since 1992 up to the present,’ its armed forces said.

A Chinese coast guard vessel stays beside suspected Chinese militia ships near Thitu island, locally called Pag-asa island, on Nov. 6, 2024. Aaron Favila/AP Photo

The Philippines said its April 27 operation to inspect sandbars claimed by China showed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is spreading “fake news” to shape public discourse at a politically sensitive time for the Philippines ahead of its May 12 midterm elections.

“We can totally debunk the lie and disinformation by the People’s Republic of China that they have already occupied the Pagasa cays,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela told reporters on April 28, referring to a group of small islands also known as the Sandy Cays.

The operation to land on Sandy Cay, a group of five sandbars that are part of the Philippines’ sovereign territory in the South China Sea, was in response to reports in Chinese state media and the China Coast Guard claiming that China had permanently occupied cays one, two, and three of Sandy Cay.

On April 26, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV broadcast images of khaki-clad China Coast Guard officers unfurling the CCP flag to proclaim control over Sandy Cay Three in mid-April. The Philippines occupies the nearby Thitu Island, or Pagasa Island, which, according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), means that nearby features such as Sandy Cay, which the Chinese call Tiexian Reef, are part of the Philippines’ sovereign territory.

On April 27, six Filipino officers landed on the uninhabited sandbars of cays one, two, and three of Sandy Cay to show the Philippine public that the CCP had not gained permanent control or built any structures or installed or monitoring devices, contradicting its claims.

“As we all know, the information space nowadays is also a battleground,” Assistant Director General of the National Security Council of the Philippines, Jonathan Malaya, said in a press conference.

“So it is to the interest of the PRC if they’re able to utilize the information space to intimidate and harass. This is also one form of gray zone operations on the part of the PRC. … So we’re here to debunk that and assure the public that we have not lost the Pagasa Cays.”

He also called on the CCP and the China Coast Guard to “maintain the status quo” and “act with restraint and not increase tensions in the West Philippine Sea.”

“We remind them of their commitment in the 2002 Declaration of Conduct, wherein it was agreed by those nations that signed the declaration that there will be no occupation moving forward of unoccupied features,” Malaya said of an agreement that the Chinese Foreign Ministry commonly references itself in its South China Sea statements.

“It is not to the benefit of any nation if these things are happening, nor is it to the benefit of any nation if such irresponsible announcements and statements are released to the public and to the world.”

Responding to the Philippines’ operation, the China Coast Guard on April 27 claimed that the Philippines had “violated China’s territorial sovereignty.”

China Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun demanded that the Philippines cease its landings “immediately” and that the China Coast Guard would continue to “carry out law enforcement activities” within waters that are part of its jurisdiction.

The 92 acres of Thitu Island and the five sandbars of Sandy Cay make up the Thitu Reefs. Manila currently holds de facto sovereignty over both features of the reef under UNCLOS due to its decades-long occupation of Thitu Island, which it calls Pagasa.

Both Thitu Island and Sandy Cay are classified as rocks under UNCLOS, as they remain above water at high tide. The 2016 Hague Tribunal ruling in Philippines v. China outlined that states are entitled to 12 nautical miles of sovereign territory around “rocks,” which extends to the airspace above and the seabed below. Sandy Cay lies just five nautical miles west of Thitu Island.

The reefs are among the Spratly Islands that lie beyond the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or continental shelf of any one nation. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam all have overlapping claims of sovereignty in the region, which has significant oil and natural gas reserves.

Information Warfare

Tarriela told reporters that while the Philippines is actively monitoring its seas to make sure that the CCP does not cross Manila’s stated four red lines, the public also needs to be aware that the CCP is playing the game of information warfare.

“We can already observe how the Chinese government plans out their strategy,” he said of the CCP. “It always starts with a lie, and then, if you’re not going to counter the lie, they’re going to operationalize that lie and take possession of whatever narrative that they have.”

He said with the recent claims about seizing Sandy Cay, China was planting misinformation, “convincing the international community that they have already seized Pagasa Cays one, two, and three.”

Rear Admiral Vincent Trinidad, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the West Philippine Sea, said the CCP has been using these tactics against the Philippines for decades, since 1992. “Their illegal presence, coercive, and aggressive actions, and deceptive messaging have been in play since 1992 up to the present.”

He said this recent disinformation operation was to counter the joint Philippine-U.S. Balikatan military drills.

He also called on Filipinos to be aware of the CCP’s attempts to “draw the picture [attention] away” from the Balikatan drills and other CCP actions of malign influence in the Philippines. He pointed to a Philippine Senate report on April 25 that documented alleged check payments issued by the Chinese Embassy in Manila to a marketing company that allegedly paid people to influence political discourse online just before the elections, an accusation the company denied on May 2.

“Explain the check,” Malaya told China. “You know blanket denials will not do. … Rather than doing these things, they should explain to the world and to the Filipino people why they are interfering in the internal matters of the Philippine government, of the Filipino people.”

As to any risks regarding the CCP occupation of Sandy Cay, Trinidad said, “The AFP has been very strongly monitoring our maritime domain, not only in Sandy Cay. Any action that will go beyond the current status quo will, and as has already been declared, a red line, especially when it comes to reclamation and building activities.”

He added that the cay that China landed on, which was actually Sandy Cay Two, is within 1.8 miles of Thitu Island and within monitoring of the military base there.

“The president clearly stated that he will not allow a single inch of Philippine territory to be taken away from us,” Malaya said.

CCP Wants Control

China observers have long voiced concerns that the CCP was planning a land grab at Sandy Cay.

China has been “watching Sandy Cay” for a long time, Philippines’ ambassador to China, Chito Santa Romana, has warned.

The past decade has seen the two nations locked in an ongoing tussle over the sliver of sand that remains above water because of what it means for territorial claims in the region under UNCLOS, even though China has ignored international law under UNCLOS in many other instances across the South China Sea.

In 2017, a flotilla of Chinese ships had gathered at Sandy Cay, with Lowy Institute security analyst Euan Graham writing at the time: “China’s ongoing maritime activity around Thitu is worrisome. ... If the objective of the operation is to occupy Sandy Cay, that would mean a significant escalation in tension in the South China Sea.”

Filipino Congressman Gary Alejano said at the time, “The Chinese may have a sinister plan to occupy sandbars just west of Pagasa that belong to us.”

A Philippine Air Force C-130 transport plane as Philippine troops march at the Philippine-claimed Thitu Island off the disputed Spratlys chain of islands in the South China Sea in western Philippines, on April 21, 2017. Bullit Marquez/File/AP Photo

Then, in 2019, another swarm of around 275 Chinese fishing ships appeared in the waters around Thitu Island, reportedly blocking Philippine access to Sandy Cay like they did when they wrestled control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012.

In response, the Philippines declared that the Chinese vessels were in violation of its “sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.”

At the time, the Philippines was repairing a runway and finishing a beach ramp on Thitu Island, which the Chinese may have seen as a feature for U.S. military access to challenge its military presence on the China-occupied Subi Reef, just 10 nautical miles away from Sandy Cay.

A view of Philippine-occupied (Pagasa) Thitu island in the disputed South China Sea on April 21, 2017. Erik De Castro/Reuters

As a low-tide elevation, Subi is not a rock and therefore generates no territorial sea of its own.

If the Chinese regime wrestles control of Sandy Cay from the Philippines, the rock could see China lay its own 12 nautical mile territorial claim that would include Subi Reef—although such a claim would still overlap with the Hague’s ruling that Subi is within the Philippines EEZ and continental shelf.

The Philippines says China’s artificial island building at Subi is illegal under UNCLOS and in violation of the Philippines’ exclusive rights to exploit the resources in its EEZ and continental shelf.

The Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam all have overlapping claims to Subi.

An airfield, buildings, and structures on the artificial island built by China in Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, South China Sea, on Oct. 25, 2022. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Militarized Subi Reef

The Chinese have occupied Subi since 1988 and began works to dredge, reclaim, and militarize the reef in 2014. Its artificial reef-building at Subi and other reefs was also criticized by the Hague for causing permanent ecological damage to the nearby coral reefs, in violation of China’s obligations under UNCLOS, specifically Articles 192, 194, and related provisions to protect and preserve the marine environment.

All states with claims to the Spratly Islands, except Taiwan, have ratified the UNCLOS: the Philippines in 1984, Vietnam in 1994, and Brunei, China, and Malaysia in 1996.

Despite this, Beijing maintains that the Hague ruling has no legal basis and continues to assert many of its contested historical claims in the South China Sea.

In December 2024, the Philippine navy’s spokesperson warned that Subi Reef was now serving as an anchoring hub for Chinese ships in the South China Sea, or West Philippine Sea.

Military Drills

The CCP’s claims to Sandy Cay coincide with the United States and Manila’s launching their annual joint Balikatan, or “shoulder-to-shoulder,” military drills on April 21, with the exercises said to be in preparation for a “full-scale battle scenario.” This drew criticism from Beijing, which called them “destabilizing” amid what the Philippines and other U.S. allies consider aggressive actions by the CCP.

“It’s joint training with the U.S. forces to increase our capability in securing our territory and, of course, it will increase our capabilities and our preparedness and responsiveness to any eventuality,” Philippine army Maj. Gen. Francisco Lorenzo said of the drills.

“All of us want to resolve any regional conflict peacefully but should deterrence fail, we need to be prepared,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn said.

The drills last through May 9.

In early April, China and Cambodia held their own joint military drills at the newly expanded Ream Naval Base on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.