A disputed shoal in the middle of a contested, strategic area Beijing has been eyeing off for years has been announced as the site of a new nature reserve by China.
The Philippines has reacted strongly to plans for the reserve in what is internationally recognised as its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
Where does China want to build the reserve?
On the Scarborough Shoal.
It is one of Asia’s most contested maritime features, and has been the site of years of stand-offs between Beijing and Manila.
The remote triangle of reefs and rocks has been a flashpoint for diplomatic flare-ups over sovereignty and fishing rights.
Located 200 kilometres off the Philippines and inside its exclusive economic zone, the shoal is coveted for its bountiful fish stocks and a stunning turquoise lagoon that provides safe haven for vessels during storms.
Its position is strategic for Beijing, sitting in the middle of the South China Sea and near shipping lanes carrying more than $4.5 trillion of commerce annually.
Given its importance, activities there are watched closely by the US and other major powers.
The Scarborough Shoal is one of many South China Sea islands, islets and reefs that are claimed by China under its nine-dash line.
China’s claims in the South China Sea cut through the majority of its neighbours’ claims. (ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)
However, under international law and maritime conventions, they are deemed to belong to its neighbours, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The Scarborough Shoal is named Huangyan Island by Beijing, while Manila calls it the Panatag Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc.
What are Beijing’s plans?
China said the reserve would preserve a 3,524-hectare coral reef ecosystem.
Previously, the Philippines has accused China of activities that have damaged coral and marine life, including clam harvesting.
A 2023 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found China’s construction activity in the South China Sea had buried more than 1,861 hectares of reef.
In addition, giant clam harvesting by Chinese fishermen had damaged another 6,618 hectares of coral reef, CSIS said.
Beijing has also accused Manila of environmental damage.
A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine fisheries aircraft over Scarborough Shoal in February. (AP: Joeal Calupitan/File)
The proposed nature reserve would cover the entire north-eastern side of the atoll, close to the only entrance for larger vessels.
There is likely to be scepticism and international concern about China’s underlying motives.
There have long been expectations China might one day build an island on Scarborough Shoal, as it has on seven submerged reefs in the Spratly Islands, some equipped with radar, runways and missile systems.
Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said China’s plan was “patently illegal”.
“It is a clear pretext towards eventual occupation,” he said.
China said the shoal was its “inherent territory”.
“The establishment of a national-level nature reserve on Huangyan Island falls within China’s sovereignty,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“China does not accept the Philippines’s unreasonable accusations and protests, and urges the Philippine side to cease its infringements and provocations.”
Lowell Bautista, from Western Sydney University’s School of Law, said China’s announcement was less about environmental stewardship than “power and control”.
“International law — and the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling — makes clear that Beijing has no lawful basis to impose conservation measures or regulate activities in these waters,” Dr Bautista said.
“By cloaking its actions in the language of environmental protection, China is entrenching its administrative grip, marginalising Filipino fishers who have traditionally relied on the shoal, and reinforcing its contested claims.
“The result is not genuine conservation, but the further consolidation of China’s presence and the erosion of the rights of other coastal states in the South China Sea.”
Security expert Jennifer Parker said it was another example of China’s lawfare.
“Beijing is trying to use domestic law to legitimise a maritime claim at odds with international maritime law,” she told the ABC.
Who does the Scarborough Shoal belong to?
The Philippines and China both claim the Scarborough Shoal.
Sovereignty has never been established, and it is effectively under Beijing’s control.
Filipino boats operate there but are dwarfed by China’s presence.
China seized the shoal in 2012 after a stand-off with the Philippines and has since maintained a deployment there of coast guard and fishing trawlers.
Protesters in the Philippines have been calling for China to stay out of their waters for years. (Reuters: Eloisa Lopez)
Manila has said some of the trawlers at the shoal and other disputed areas of the South China Sea are operated by Chinese maritime militia, which Beijing has never acknowledged.
A landmark ruling on various South China Sea issues by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 went in favour of Manila.
Establishing sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal was not within its scope.
The ruling said Beijing’s blockade there violated international law as it was a traditional fishing ground for several countries, including China, the Philippines and Vietnam.
What is the risk of conflict?
Tensions have simmered for a while at the shoal.
There have been incidents in recent years that have caused diplomatic rows, but none have escalated into armed conflict.
A Chinese Coast Guard ship uses its water cannons on a Philippine fisheries vessel as it approaches Scarborough Shoal in December, 2023. (AP: Philippine Coast Guard/File)
At their most heated, they have included the use of water cannon, boat-ramming and what the Philippines considers dangerously close manoeuvres by China’s coast guard, and jets shadowing Philippine aircraft over the shoal.
Both sides accuse each other of provocations and trespassing.
The Philippines’s coast guard is under-equipped and no match for China’s armada.
A deterrent might be the United States, which has strengthened its defence alliance with the Philippines.
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It has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines if its forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
In recent days, China sailed the Fujian, its third and most advanced aircraft carrier, through the Taiwan Strait and into the South China Sea to the north of the Scarborough Shoal.
China’s navy said it was conducting scientific research trials and training missions, and its voyage was “not directed at any specific target”.
The Fujian completed its 8-day maiden sea trial in May, 2024. (AP: Pu Haiyang/Xinhua)
Ms Parker said China would use its establishment of the nature reserve to push Filipino vessels out of the Scarborough Shoal.
“What we will see after this declaration is more intensity, more water cannoning, more ramming, more bullying of Philippines fishermen — within the Philippines’s own exclusive economic zone,” she said.
“China will say this is legitimate because they are breaching a nature reserve.”
Unlike other contested spaces in the South China Sea where Bejing has built military infrastructure, it has not yet moved to militarise Scarborough Shoal.
“China has been deterred, to a point,” Ms Parker said.
Ms Parker said countries including Australia needed to make clear that they did not recognise the nature reserve and that it was at odds with international law.
ABC/wires
