By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
CHINA has been waging psychological warfare to assert its expansive claim in the South China Sea and alter the status quo without military force, geopolitical analysts said on Wednesday.
China has accused the Philippines of failing to honor a supposed promise to remove a grounded warship from the Second Thomas Shoal, which Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has debunked.
“For the past decades, China has been steadfast in its attempts to alter the status quo through disinformation and psychological warfare,” Don Mclain Gill, who teaches foreign relations at De La Salle University in Manila, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“Beijing seeks to intimidate the Philippines in its own waters to slowly twist the status quo in its favor without using overt military force,” he added.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.
China’s psychological warfare lies in “the consistency and patience to take over territory that legitimately belongs to other states,” Mr. Gil said.
It uses the so-called cabbage tactics, first termed by Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong of the People’s Liberation Army to refer to the strategy of seizing control of an island by surrounding and wrapping it in successive layers of Chinese naval and coast guard ships and fishing boats.
“This cabbage strategy is continuously being incorporated today, he added.
Victor Andres C. Manhit, president of think tank Stratbase ADR, said China’s narrative is shaped by coercive and antagonistic attempts to disrupt the rule-based international order.
“We should not allow ourselves to be dictated by this,” he said via Messenger chat. “We must hold on to our arbitral victory in the West Philippine Sea and do our part in defending our sovereignty.”
A handful of Filipino troops are stationed at BRP Sierra Madre, a rusty World War II-era US ship that the Philippines intentionally grounded at the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to assert its claim.
China has repeatedly asked the Philippine government to honor its supposed commitment by towing away the outpost. This was days after the Chinese Coast Guard used water cannons against Philippine vessels trying to bring food and other supplies to the outpost.
Mr. Marcos last week said he was not aware of an agreement to remove BRP Sierra Madre from Second Thomas Shoal. “And let me go further, if there exists such an agreement, I rescind that agreement now,” he said.
Chester C. Cabalza, founder of Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation, said the “symbolic presence” of BRP Sierra Madre for 24 years is an eyesore to the dominant Chinese armada in the South China Sea.
“It is a reminder of their naval weakness, especially now that the Philippines has a stronghold in the contested shoal, strategically located within its exclusive economic zone,” he said via Messenger chat.
‘DISRESPECT’
He said China would use all sorts of verbal and nonverbal intimidation to get rid of the vessel, including “using unwritten promises supposed vowed to them by their Filipino counterparts to support its claims.”
Removing BRP Sierra Madre from Second Thomas Shoal would allow the Chinese Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy to access other important maritime features of the Philippines such as Reed Bank and Thitu Island, Mr. Cabalza said.
“Immediately, they would reclaim, expand and militarize Ayungin Shoal, which is very close to Mischief Reef — the first maritime feature they stole from us in 1995.”
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to summon Chinese Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Zhou Zhiyong, who parroted China’s claim during a media forum hosted by a Filipino businessman at the weekend.
“His insistence amounted to disrespect and an insult because President Marcos had declared days earlier that he had made no such promise and that he was scrapping any such commitment, if one was made by any of his predecessors,” Mr. Rodriguez said in a statement. “Mr. Zhou and his government should have just accepted the President’s declaration.”
Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan Island.
“Who are they to tell us to abandon our own maritime territory?” the congressman asked.
At the forum, the Chinese envoy lamented that the Philippines had not responded to China’s repeated requests for dialogue on Second Thomas Shoal.
“You do not negotiate with anyone encroaching on your backyard,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “You exert effort to drive him away.”
The lawmaker said the Philippine could not meet China halfway about the shoal “because that Ayungin area belongs to us.”
“Why should we involve China in managing our town maritime territory? They should leave that area and the sea features they have seized, including Mischief Reef, also off Palawan in the south, and Scarborough Shoal near Zambales and Pangasinan in the north,” he added.
The Philippines should continuously challenge Chinese propaganda by “cementing its position in the West Philippine Sea while also pushing for consistent joint patrols in these areas to set the norm,” Mr. Gill said.
“Once the norm has been set, it will be difficult for China to push its own propaganda, but such norm-setting requires consistency and coordination,” he said. “Beijing will always be willing to exploit gaps in policy inconsistencies.”
Political analysts earlier said they expect China to fire more water cannons at Philippine vessels as the Marcos government pursues legal steps against Chinese aggression and forms security ties with its allies.
China used water cannons against Filipino fishermen at Scarborough Shoal in 2014 after the Philippines under the late President Benigno S.C. Aquino III filed an arbitration case in the Hague in 2013.
China used the same tactic in 2021 against a Philippine resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal.
The Philippines and the US are set to hold joint sea patrols in the South China Sea before the year ends.
