Philippine laws up tension on South China Sea

The latest confrontation between Philippine and Chinese vessels in disputed waters on the South China Sea took place on Wednesday, with both sides trading blame after Manila claimed that a Chinese patrol fired a water cannon and "sideswiped" a Philippine coast guard boat.

China claimed that Philippine coast guard vessels attempted to "intrude into China's territorial waters around Huangyan Island," which is what China calls Scarborough Shoal, a ring of shallow rocks about 220 kilometers (130 nautical miles) off the coast of the Philippine island of Luzon. 

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea as its maritime territory, despite a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal declaring these claims invalid under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Among other things, UNCLOS defines a country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as extending 200 nautical miles from land. The EEZ allows a country rights to marine resources. 

For reference, Scarborough Shoal, where these confrontations frequently take place, is over 460 nautical miles (765 kilometers) from the nearest Chinese shore, on Hainan Island, and is well within the Philippine EEZ. 

However, these territorial disputes also involve other countries, chiefly Malaysia and Vietnam, both of which have claims in the South China Sea overlapping those of China and the Philippines. 

Philippine maritime laws spark regional backlash

On November 8, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, which reaffirm Manila's maritime claims.

"These signal our resolve to protect our maritime resources, preserve our rich biodiversity, and ensure that our waters remain a source of life and livelihood for all Filipinos," Marcos said.

China quickly called the acts an "illegal ruling." The laws also imposed fixed lanes for foreign ships, prompting China to summon the Philippine ambassador.

The new legislation also angered Malaysia, whose deputy foreign minister, Mohamad Alamin, said the acts restated a territorial claim by Manila over the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo, a dispute that dates back to colonial times.

In August, Vietnam and the Philippines agreed to deepen defense and military relations and enhance maritime security collaboration amid China's growing assertiveness in the disputed waters.

The countries are set to sign an official agreement before the end of the year, vowing to resolve disagreements peacefully under international law.

Maritime disputes between smaller countries 

Shahriman Lockman, director of special projects at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia, told DW that the Philippines' overlapping claims are "provocative" for Malaysia.

"Many people often overlook that the overlapping claims in the South China Sea are not solely between China and Southeast Asian claimants," Lockman said, "but also involve disputes among the Southeast Asian claimants themselves."

"In some ways, the Philippine claims are especially provocative for Malaysia, for they encompass the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. This is not an uninhabited island but a state with nearly 4 million people and the second largest by area in Malaysia," Lockman said. "Malaysia's protests are nothing new," Locklman added. "What would be unusual is their absence."

Challenges in unified resistance against China

Lockman said each country had its own disputes, which makes it difficult for them to unite in resisting to China.

"The reality for each individual claimant varies significantly, and this highlights the issue with the world viewing the situation through a narrow lens that reduces it to a China-versus-Southeast Asia narrative," Lockman said.

Observers say Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been shifting Malaysia's allegiances toward China since taking office in 2022. 

China has been Malaysia's top trading partner since 2009, accounting for 17% of Malaysia's global trade — close to $100 billion (€95 billion) — the country's trade minister, Zafrul Aziz, said in June. 

Protecting these precious economic ties is paramount to Malaysia, and observers say that is why the country rarely opposes Beijing's claims or actions in the South China Sea, despite also having its own long-running territorial disputes with China.

"Apart from silence on the South China Sea dispute between Manila and Beijing, Malaysia has also taken a quieter approach to its own dispute with Beijing," Ian Chong, a political scientist in Singapore, said in September. 

He said that the Philippines' open defiance of China's claims contrasts with Malaysia's "muted and private responses" to the Beijing protest at Malaysia's oil exploration and Beijing's deployment of coast guard vessels off the coast of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on northern Borneo island. 

Chong said this indicated that Malaysia is "ready to pressure" countries such as the Philippines that it considers to be "relatively weaker," while being less willing to stand up to China, which offers "significant economic opportunities" 

Edited by: Keith Walker