Carpio: China may ‘control’ S. China Sea if station built on Scarborough

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has warned that China may impose an air defense zone and control the whole South China Sea if the Philippines will not stop its plan to build a radar station in the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

Carpio made the statement following reports of Beijing’s plan to install an environmental monitoring station at the shoal — a resource-rich rocky outcrop 124 nautical miles off Palawan’s northwestern coast.

“A radar station on Scarborough Shoal will immediately complete China's radar coverage of the entire South China Sea. China can then impose an ADIZ or air defense identification zone in the South China Sea,” said Carpio, a member of the Philippine legal team during the arbitration proceedings against China in The Hague, Netherlands.

Several nations, led by the US, Japan and Australia feared that a Chinese-imposed ADIZ in the South China Sea — one of the world's most vital commercial and strategic waterways — would impede freedom of navigation and overflights.

“These developments call for a national debate, and consensus, on how the nation should proceed with its bilateral relations with China,” Carpio said.

In 2013, China imposed an ADIZ over the East Sea, which it jointly claims with Japan. China's ADIZ in the East Sea is not being recognized by Japan and its ally, the United States.

China claims “indisputable” ownership over nearly the entire waters, where rich mineral deposits, oil and natural gas have been discovered in several areas.

It ignored criticisms and protests over their actions, insisting that all its activities in the South China Sea are within the bounds of its territorial sovereignty.

A top official of China’s so-called Sansha City, which administers South China Sea territories it controls, said Beijing would start preparatory work for environmental monitoring stations on a number of islands, including Scarborough, this year.

Former Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Chinese President Xi Jinping made the commitment not to reclaim the shoal during President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to China in October 2016.

Since he assumed office in June, Duterte has taken steps to mend ties with China that considerably deteriorated during the time of his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who brought the territorial rifts to international arbitration in 2013.

As he praised China, Duterte was hostile to the US — Manila’s long-time treaty ally — as Washington criticized his violent war on drugs where thousands of suspects were killed without legal process.

Relations between China and the Philippines have vastly improved under Duterte, who has sought Chinese trade and economic aid while shelving long-running territorial disputes, including an arbitral tribunal case won by the country.

Manila filed the case after China seized Scarborough in 2012. 

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered a sweeping victory to the Philippines on its case against China and invalidated Beijing's massive and historical claims on nearly the entire South China Sea. China has refused to recognize the ruling.

The tribunal also ruled that no country can claim sovereign rights over the Scarborough shoal, declaring it a traditional fishing ground for Filipino, Vietnamese and Chinese fishermen.

Carpio recalled that in 1987, China made a similar construction in the Fiery Cross Reef, an outcrop in the southern part of the South China Sea, called the Spratlys.

The Chinese, he said, erected a radar weather station apparently to help the global oceanic survey of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO).

But from 2014 to 2015, Carpio said the Chinese turned the weather station into a 270-hectare military air-naval base.

“Now it's the turn of Scarborough Shoal,” he said.

China, according to Carpio, will use its HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles to enforce the ADIZ.

“These missiles are now installed on Woody Island in the Paracels. China also just completed building on Subi Reef, Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef concrete hexagonal structures, with retractable roofs, to house HQ-9 missile batteries,” he said. 

The Chinese, Carpio added, “will of course also use these same military installations to enforce the 9-dashed lines as China's national boundaries in the South China Sea.” 

Carpio was referring to China’s nine-dash line map — a tongue-shaped enclosure that encompasses almost the entire South China Sea.

“That means China will grab 80 percent of Philippine exclusive economic zone and 100 percent of Philippine extended continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea,” he said. — MDM, GMA News