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For decades, China and the Philippines have been arguing over the wreck of a ship stuck in the middle of the South China Sea, off the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,200 kilometers from the Chinese coast. The ship is owned by the Philippine Navy, but China claims she cannot remain there and must be removed. In recent months the confrontation has become more heated and intense and has also involved the United States, linked to the Philippines by a mutual defense treaty which would also apply in the event of foreign attacks against Philippine vessels.
The ship in question is the Sierra Madre, a warship built for the US Navy during World War II and then donated to the Philippine Navy in 1976. Since 1999 it has been docked near the Second Thomas Shoal, an atoll in the archipelago of islands Spratly, and is used by the Philippine government to claim its sovereignty over that stretch of sea. The Spratly Islands are an archipelago made up of over one hundred small islands that are located in an area rich in natural resources, including oil and natural gas, and in a strategic position for military and trade routes. This is why the islands are claimed from China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and partly also from Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
After 25 years of being stationary, today the Sierra Madre is a wreck: the structure is rusty and dilapidated and cannot move without being towed. However, it is still to all intents and purposes a vehicle of the Philippine army, and some soldiers live on board who need to receive regular supplies of food, water, fuel and other primary goods. China maintains that the presence of the Sierra Madre in that stretch of sea is illegitimate, and has long asked for it to be removed: among other things, Chinese Coast Guard boats try to hinder refueling operations towards the Sierra Madre, for example by attacking Philippine ships with water cannons. It happened many times, for example in August, October and December of 2023 and also last March.
About a year ago, the Philippines began inviting journalists on board boats bringing supplies to the Sierra Madre to demonstrate how China is trying to block them.
Last November, for example, a journalist from New York Times has accompanied the Philippine Army in one of these operations, first boarding a Coast Guard vessel and then a rubber dinghy. The journalist, Camille Elemia, said that as soon as they headed towards the Sierra Madre, the Philippine ships were surrounded by at least 15 Chinese boats, which threatened to hit them and divert their route. After several hours of clashes, the Philippine ships, still surrounded by the Chinese ones, managed to approach the Sierra Madre. In an effort to avoid blockages caused by China, the Philippines in January they parachuted some supplies directly on the ship.
Soldiers raise the Philippine flag on the Sierra Madre in 2014 (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)
The Sierra Madre issue also involves the United States, allies of the Philippines and interested above all in containing China’s influence in the Asian region. In 1951 the United States they signed a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which provides for mutual intervention in the event that either country is attacked. The agreement would also apply in the event of any attacks against the Sierra Madre: «China is underestimating the danger of a escalation», he said to Financial Times an anonymous US official.
The United States is therefore trying to convince China and other countries in the region to ease their relations with each other: according to the Financial TimesUS President Joe Biden this week he would intend to discuss the issue during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
At the end of March Marcos he said that his government intends to respond to the “illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous” attacks carried out by the Chinese Coast Guard against ships bringing supplies to the Sierra Madre. Marcos did not specify what measures will be adopted, but assured that they will be proportional and reasonable: «We do not seek conflict with any state, and even less with those who claim to be our friends, but we will not be intimidated and forced into silence, submission or to subordination,” he wrote on Facebook. A few days later Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson for the National Security Council of the Philippines, he confirmed that the government intends to continue supplying the Sierra Madre despite China’s attempts to interfere with operations.
The situation in the region has been very complicated for some time. China claims that almost all the territories of the South China Sea have been part of Chinese territory for two thousand years, while the countries that oppose Chinese requests – including the Philippines – argue that China’s interest has only manifested itself since end of the Second World War, and is in any case illegitimate.
In 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that China’s claims are not supported by legal grounds. The lawsuit was filed by the Philippines in 2013, when the Chinese Navy took control of Scarborough Shoal, a largely submerged atoll that sits in the middle of a rich fishing area off the Philippine island of Luzon. . However, China has never respected the ruling, and from 2016 to today has continued to claim its sovereignty over practically the entire South China Sea, often clashing with other countries in the area.
Philippine Navy soldiers carry supplies aboard the Sierra Madre in 2014 (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
In particular, China claims to have the right to control the waters that lie within the “nine-dash line”, which passes close to the coasts of all the countries bordering the South China Sea. It is a violation of international law, according to which each country has the right to 12 nautical miles (about 22 kilometers) of coastline of “territorial sea”, where it has full sovereignty, and has some exclusive exploitation rights, including fishing and extraction of raw materials, over 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its coasts. China’s claims, however, extend more than 700 nautical miles from its coasts.
– Read also: The “nine-dash line” that angers China’s neighbors, explained
Plus details of the claims they are very unclear: China has always kept itself deliberately vague about its exact claims to the South China Sea, so that it can change them as the occasion arises. It is not known, therefore, whether China considers it to be its own “territorial sea”, or whether it only claims rights to fish or extract raw materials.
To strengthen its presence on the territory, for years China has been building artificial islands in the area surrounding the Spratly Islands. In 2022 John Aquilino, a US Navy admiral, these that China had completely militarized at least three of the islands built in the area, for example building missile defense systems and installing weapons and war equipment.