Philippines protests China law on coast guard shooting foreign ships

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday said the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China over its law that authorizes its coast guard to shoot foreign vessels in areas it claims in the disputed South China Sea.

"After reflection I fired a diplomatic protest. While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one—given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea—is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies the law; which, if unchallenged, is submission to it," Locsin said on Twitter.

China's new law that was passed last week is expected to stoke tensions anew in the waters where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

The law allows the Chinese coast guard to undertake "all necessary measures, including the use of weapons when national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by foreign organizations or individuals at sea.”

China, which insisted on historical and indisputable claim over nearly the entire South China Sea, has expanded its presence in the waters, turning several former reefs into artificial islands with military facilities, runways and surface to air missiles.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 invalidated China's sweeping claim.

In the case brought by the Philippines, the court ruled that Beijing's claim violated Manila's economic and sovereign rights under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. -NB, GMA News