20110618 China to boost its coastal forces

China to boost its coastal forces

Reuters and AP, BEIJING and MANILA

China will boost its coastal forces by adding ships and 6,000 personnel by 2020, state media said yesterday, a move likely to raise tensions with neighbors staking rival claims to waters thought to hold vast reserves of oil and gas.

The expansion of the China Maritime Surveillance forces, a paramilitary law enforcement agency that patrols China’s territorial waters, was unveiled two days after the country sent its largest civilian maritime patrol ship to the South China Sea.

The moves show Beijing’s resolve to protect its “maritime rights and sovereignty,” which it says have been increasingly violated amid a rising frequency of disputes, but other claimants are also keen to show they are not backing down.

The Philippines has sent its largest warship — a World War II-vintage destroyer escort — on a patrol that would take it through the disputed Scarborough Shoals (斯卡伯群島) in the South China Sea, off its main island of Luzon.

“The navy conducts regular offshore patrols and we should not connect the deployment of Rajah Humabon to the deployment of China’s maritime vessel,” Philippine Department of National Defense spokesman Eduardo Batac said.

However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III insisted yesterday that his country won’t be bullied by China in a territorial spat over the Spratly Islands (南沙群島), but also announced an end to oil exploration in the disputed waters that had angered Beijing.

Aquino told The Associated Press in an interview that his government has completed the exploration around Reed Bank, about 130km from western Palawan Province and that the prospects are “very good.” He declined to elaborate for fear of further stoking tension over the area, which also is claimed by China.

He did say, however, “We will not be pushed around because we are a tiny state compared with theirs,” in reference to China.

“We think we have very solid grounds to say ‘do not intrude into our territory’ and that is not a source of dispute or should not be a source of dispute,” Aquino said.

Meanwhile, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario met diplomats from the nine other ASEAN members in Manila, urging a common position and approach to resolve the South China Sea dispute.

China’s maritime forces, under the Chinese State Oceanic Administration, will have 16 aircraft and 350 vessels by the end of the country’s five-year plan ending in 2015, and more than 15,000 personnel and 520 vessels by 2020, the China Daily said citing an unnamed senior official. It did not give a price tag.

“There have been an increasing number of intrusions by foreign vessels and planes into Chinese waters and airspace in recent years,” the newspaper said.

It said that the coastal forces had logged 1,303 foreign ships and 214 planes intruding this year, compared with a total of 110 cases in 2007.

Tensions in the South China Sea have risen in the past month on concerns that China is becoming more assertive in the waters, parts of which are also claimed by Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

A commentary from Xinhua news agency blamed the tension on the US wading into the dispute.

The US’ statements had emboldened China’s neighbors “and only then did they dare adopt a ultra-hawkish stance in voicing their positions,” the commentary said.

China’s claim is by far the largest, forming a large U-shape over most of the sea’s 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Spratlys and the Paracel Islands (西沙群島).

This week, Beijing warned outside countries not to step into the dispute, after Vietnam said other countries, including the US, could help defuse the tension.

China has accused Vietnam of violating its claim to the Spratlys and nearby seas, which Vietnam also deems its own.

Beijing said last week it would hold naval drills in June in the western Pacific Ocean and its navy plans to launch its first aircraft carrier as early as this year.

The maritime forces have grown rapidly since Liu Cigui (劉賜貴), 55, took over as head of the State Oceanic Administration in March last year after a stint as Xiamen mayor.

Liu, head of Fujian’s provincial oceanic and fishery bureau from 2000 to 2002, is no stranger to maritime matters.

“Liu Cigui decided to beef up China Maritime Surveillance by adding ships and helicopters to its South Sea, East Sea and North Sea fleets” to safeguard territorial waters and the country’s marine economy, a source with ties to the oceanic administration said.

Liu put the output of China’s marine economy at 3.8 trillion yuan (US$586.8 billion) last year, accounting for 9.7 percent of gross domestic output. He did not give a comparative figure.

Maritime surveillance personnel are mainly retired navy men and officers, the source said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

China Maritime Surveillance was founded in 1998 and its duties include protecting the maritime environment.