Crucial Bajo de Masinloc

Crucial Bajo de Masinloc | Daily Tribune

China is feeling the heat. So much so that China is expressly accusing Filipino journalists physically documenting the Chinese harassment at the West Philippine Sea of smearing the China Coast Guard.

In a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) last 24 February, China’s state-run Global Times said: “Photos released by the China Coast Guard on Saturday show that several journalists were on board the Philippine vessel 3002 near China’s Huangyan Island on Thursday to take pictures and videos in an attempt to smear and hype the CCG’s operation.”

The tweet was sent the day before the Philippine Coast Guard released videos and photos of Chinese ships unsafely attempting to block the BRP Datu Sanday that was delivering fuel and supplies to Filipino fishermen at Bajo de Masinloc.

Aside from the blocking attempts, the PCG reported “shadowing” maneuvers and transponder jamming by the Chinese.

A week earlier, the BRP Datu Tamblot had a similar encounter with Chinese vessels at Bajo de Masinloc.

Before anything else, however, we must highlight that the incidents at Bajo de Masinloc are vitally important to both the Philippines and China. This is so because of the crucial fact that Bajo de Masinloc is the key to invalidating China’s expansive claim over the entire South China Sea.

Huangyan Island is China’s name for Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal, which is legally recognized as just a “rock in the South China Sea.”

Approximately 120 nautical miles west of Luzon, China has maintained a constant coast guard presence at Masinloc since 2012 when the Philippines and China had a tense standoff.

The standoff, involving a Philippine Navy ship and several Chinese vessels, still reverberates in today’s political landscape, with frequent recriminations levelled against former Aquino administration officials.

But in relation to China presently feeling the heat, the 2012 incident is the key to a better understanding of the current Philippine government’s innovative “transparency initiative.”

Right after the 2012 standoff, the Chinese government employed egregious tactics that went largely unnoticed then.

One such tactic “was the use of the Chinese national media, notably through the internet, to spread (or at least not stop) rumors of a preparation for war against the Philippines,” noted analyst Francois-Xavier Bonnet in a 2012 study.

As it turned out, the Chinese-inspired tactics apparently worked. So much so that during the previous China-friendly Philippine administration the common opinion held by its avid fans revolved around the fear that antagonizing China in any form would lead to grave consequences.

The present Marcos administration effectively reversed such fears by actively publicizing all incidents and activities in the WPS. Among these were the skirmishes with Chinese vessels during resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, the joint naval and air patrols with the country’s allies, and now the incidents at Bajo de Masinloc.

Predictably, China officially and unofficially took offense at all the publicity of such confrontations and the subsequent Filipino stubbornness to toe China’s line.

In case you’re still wondering why the reporting of incidents at Bajo de Masinloc is crucial, it’s because of the fact that the geopolitical stakes are high for China if she’s loses her unusual de facto control of the shoal — a fact that was very clear as early as 2012.

That fact is probably still valid today, particularly in light of our arbitral victory declaring the shoal as being within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

At any rate, analysts say that should China lose out at Bajo de Masinloc it means she loses all of the strategically crucial Zhongsha Qundao (Zhongsha Islands or archipelago). Should China lose Zhongsha, her entire claim over the South China Sea becomes baseless.

Meanwhile, the stakes for the Philippines are high too.

Aside from it being unexplored for energy resources, Bajo de Masinloc’s rich fishing grounds are the source of livelihood for hundreds of fishermen from Zambales, Pangasinan, and Bataan, who are now having to contend with depleted fish resources in their respective coastal areas.