Philippine Ambassador to United States said his country is not going to give away one inch of its territory, despite China’s aggression in the South China Sea.
The Philippines is planning a summit of at least 20 nations on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in the coming weeks to find ways “to talk some sense” into the Chinese regime over its aggression against Manila in the South China Sea.
Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippines’s ambassador to the United States, revealed the plan on Sept. 10 at the Future Security Forum 2024 in Washington, an
annual event organized by Arizona State University and think tank New America.
“The Philippines has never faced this type of challenge since World War II,” Romualdez said.
Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated in recent weeks, as Manila has
criticized Beijing for ramming its boats, blasting them with water cannons, and
firing flares at its aircraft, with most of the incidents occurring at Sabina Shoal, which is known to the Philippines as Escoda Shoal and by China as Xianbin Jiao.
The most
recent incident occurred on Aug. 31, with Manila
saying that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel “deliberately rammed and collided with” its patrol vessel three times “despite no provocation from the Philippine Coast Guard.”
In August, Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea,
stated in an X post that Sabina Shoal “is located within” the country’s exclusive economic zone, per the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
The ruling
rejected China’s “nine-dash line” claim to about 85 percent of the South China Sea’s 2.2 million square miles.
“As of today, they [China] have about 238 ships or militia vessels swarming in our area, and they continue to do this day in and day out,” Romualdez said.
He said the summit was being planned in the week of Sept. 22.
The 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly
opened on Sept. 10 and will conclude on Sept. 30.
‘Band Together’
Romualdez spoke of the importance of “multilateral approaches” in addressing the Chinese regime’s actions in the South China Sea.
“The more countries band together and give a message to China that what they’re doing is definitely not on the right side of history, then we have a better than even chance that they will not make that wrong move that we’re all fearing,” the ambassador said.
The aim, he said, is “to give a signal to China that we’re not just one, but we’re many that are not happy with what they’re doing today in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” argued that the Chinese regime’s aggression against the Philippines meant that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping “has decided to move on a weak neighbor,”
according to his article published on Aug. 26.
“The risk is that an attack on the Philippines will lead to general conflict in the region,” Gordon wrote, adding that such a conflict will pit the coalition of China, Russia, and North Korea against the United States and its partners.
The United States and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty. In 2022, President Joe Biden
reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the defense of the Philippines in a meeting with Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in New York City.
“We are not going to give one inch of our territory,” Romualdez said. “And it’s very important to note that if we do, if we lose just one, it’s like a domino effect. You can be sure that if it happens to us, it'll happen to the other nations as well.
“And so we are also talking now to our neighbors, especially those that have the same territorial claims in the same area, like Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam, and we have indicated to them that we have to find ways to be able to bond together and also approach China,” he added.
Last year, Beijing published a
new map featuring a “10-dash line” that increases its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Romualdez warned that the Chinese regime might not stop there, saying it might “go up to 11, 12, [or] 13” to assert its claims.
“I think China would like to dominate. They would like to be the superpower to dominate, especially in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
