BEIJING (Reuters) – China accused the Philippines on Friday of “stirring up trouble” in the South China Sea with U.S. support, a week after Beijing and Manila traded accusations over fresh disputes in the disputed waters.
“The Philippine side, with the support and request of the US, has been stirring up trouble in many areas in the South China Sea,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defense ministry, said on his WeChat account.
“The Philippines is well aware that the extent of its territory is determined by a series of international agreements and has never included China’s” Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, he added.
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Beijing and Manila have been embroiled this year in disputes over rocks and over the South China Sea, which China says is almost full.
The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are also part of the sea. They worry that China’s expansion is encroaching on their exclusive economic zones (EEZ), the non-territorial waters that stretch 200 miles (370 km) from the country’s national coast.
The Philippines’ National Maritime Council and National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest developments from Beijing.
The US Navy’s 7th Fleet also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Philippine officials said last week that Chinese coast guard boats fired water cannons and side-swiped a Manila fisheries vessel on its way to deliver supplies to Filipino fishermen around Scarborough Shoal, a move that drew condemnation from the US.
China’s Coast Guard said four Philippine ships tried to enter what it described as waters around Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island.
China submitted maritime charts earlier this month to the United Nations, which it said supports its claims to the waters, which a 2016 international court found to be a long-held zone for multinational fishermen.
Following the submission of these charts, the spokesperson of the Philippine National Maritime Council, said what China is saying is absurd and illegal.
A court in 2016 ruled that China’s claim was unfounded under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that its blockade around Scarborough Shoal was a violation of international law.
Beijing has never known a choice.
Jurisdiction over Scarborough Shoal has never been suspended.
The Philippines and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have spent years negotiating rules of procedure with Beijing for the waterway, with other countries in the bloc insisting it is based on UNCLOS.
EEZs give the maritime nation power over living and non-living things in the water and on the seabed.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Sandra Maler and Kate Mayberry)