Singapore: The national flag of China has recently been deployed on a reef challenged in the Southern China Sea by its uniform troops, an act disseminated by the state media in what analysts think they have been a first public display for decades of what had previously been quiet actions.
On the other hand with the way in which Chinese fishermen, maritime militias and even civil groups have planted flags on disputed reefs, rocks and islands of the controversial navigable way since the 1990s, observers say that the last decision of China is a specific demonstration of the United States.
They add that the move carried out on Sandy Cay – a chain of three uninhabited sand benches near a Philippin military outpost in the disputed Spratly Islands – also aims to reassure the domestic public that Beijing remains firm on fundamental interests such as sovereignty – and to represent force as external pressure frames.
The Chinese state diffuser CCTV reported on April 25 that his coastal guard landed on Sandy Cay “as part of maritime control operations to assert the sovereignty of Beijing”.
The diffuser said that the Coast Guard had “implemented control” on what it calls the tiexian reef, which is part of the Sandy Cay function. Images have shown that four members of the staff of the black combat equipment holding the Chinese national flag after their arrival on the reef aboard an inflatable canoe.
On April 28, the Philippine Coast Guard published a photo of its staff raising the national flag on the disputed reef. He indicated that the mission had been carried out before dawn the day before – a move considered as a direct refutation to the complaint of sovereignty of China.
Developments occur in the midst of the largest joint military exercises between the United States and the Philippines in neighboring waters. They also follow a recent visit to Asia by the US Secretary for Defense, Pete Hegseth, who is committed to strengthening defense ties with Manila and “shrinking” in the face of what Washington considers a growing Chinese affirmation in the region.
“For the moment, it is above all symbolic. It is a very low level, small provocations, on both sides) … He has not reached a stage where he is alarming, for the moment,” said Adib Zalkapli, managing director of Viewfinder Global Affairs and a geopolitical analyst specializing in Indo-Pacific.
But it is also a sign of China traces a line in the sand to express its firm position on territorial disputes and external pressures, said other analysts.
“It is a warning for the Philippines (against) to develop more narrower defense relations with the United States … It is a signal to say, look at, this is what we can do to counter you,” said Abdul Rahman Yaacob, researcher in the Southeast Asian program at Lowy Institute.
Calibrated confrontation
China claims almost the whole of the Southern China Sea, a position that overlaps that of several countries and territories, and goes against an international decision of the 2016 court, which rejected Beijing rights to the islands and disputed waters.
Sandy Cay is near Thitu Island, the most important and most strategically significant outpost owned by the Philippines of the Spratly Islands. It is one of the island chains, reefs and rocks of the Sea Southern China where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan maintain territorial claims that overlap.
