South China Sea: Philippines break through China's barrier

Towards the end of September, the Philippine Coast Guard discovered that China had deployed a floating barrier, initially 300 metres long, off Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, 200 kilometres off the coast of Manila, using coast guard rubber dinghies and maritime militia forces. This was intended to prevent Filipino fishing vessels from reaching the productive banks off the reef, which is part of the Philippine economic zone, and making a living there. The same ritual had already taken place in 2012 when China illegally occupied the atoll. When the then President Rodrigo Duterte moved closer to Beijing, the fishermen were allowed back onto the uninhabited reef. This changed again last year with the introduction of the new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Scarborough Shoal, Photo: Philippine Coast Guard

Now there was another unpleasant exchange of Chinese accusations of border and law violations against the Filipinos - until the Chinese realised that international media were on board the Philippine Coast Guard. The next day, Manila announced that the deployed barrier had been cut on the instructions of the president. China then announced measures to defend the territory clearly denied to it by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in its 2016 ruling. China claims 90% of the South China Sea for itself, although this area is divided into several individual economic zones of the neighbouring states. However, China believes that it can use mass, power and "alternative facts" to repeatedly create facts where the neighbouring states see no possibility of permanently occupying even the smallest reef due to a lack of this very mass.