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By Micah McCartney
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Beijing has pushed back after the Philippines' defense chief accused China of "aggression" in the South China Sea.
"The Philippine side's remarks are a complete distortion of black and white, and a case of shifting blame onto others," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang told reporters.
Newsweek reached out to the Philippine Armed Forces and the Chinese Foreign Ministry with written requests for comment.
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Why It Matters
China asserts sovereignty over most of the islands, reefs, and shoals of the resource-rich South China Sea, putting it at odds with competing claims from several neighboring countries. Beijing has dismissed as invalid a 2016 ruling by a Hague-based arbitral tribunal that rejected its expansive territorial claims.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines has stepped up its challenge to China's expanding presence in its exclusive economic zone. The dispute has led to clashes and driven the U.S. defense treaty ally to significantly boost security ties with Washington and, increasingly, other partners in the Asia-Pacific.
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What To Know
During the Defense Ministry's press briefing on Wednesday, Zhang responded to Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro's remark in a recent interview that China's behavior was behind a "major shift" in defense policy—one that has forced the Philippine armed forces to make external security their focus.
"The territorial scope of the Philippines has long been determined by a series of international treaties, and China's South China Sea Islands are outside the territory of the Philippines," Zhang stated.
He called the Philippines' occupation of certain features in the contested Spratly Islands "illegal," and accused the country of harassing China's maritime forces.
The official also rebuked the Philippines for "catering to extraterritorial forces to stir up chaos in the South China Sea," a swipe at Manila's increasing defense cooperation with partners such as the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India.
During his Monday interview with local media, Teodoro doubled down on the Marcos administration's pushback.
"As you know, the president's statements were we would be unyielding and resistant to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea. And we've been gearing up towards that mission," he said, using the Philippines' term for the part of the South China Sea within its maritime zone.
The country has been "very proactive" in working with its partners and strengthening alliances to uphold international law and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), he said.
Teodoro said he'd be skeptical about any good-faith gestures from China until the country renounces its so-called nine-dashed line, echoing remarks made to Newsweek in June, where he pointed to a "deficit of trust" with Beijing.
China's nine-dashed line is an invisible, unilateral demarcation that forms the basis for Beijing's sweeping claims.
What People Are Saying
MaryKay Carlson, U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, said at a forum earlier this month: "As we have often heard President Marcos say, economic security is national security. For the past eight years, the Arbitral award has been a linchpin in the Philippines' national security vision for a peaceful and prosperous archipelagic nation, one that the United States steadfastly supports."
Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, in a recent report, wrote of the 2016 arbitral ruling: "Historical records and maps consistently show that China exercised a long-standing presence and influence over features and routes in the South China Sea.
"Rejecting these rights as 'non-legal' is to impose a singular, Western-centric framework and to delegitimize alternative narratives of maritime order."
What Happens Next
Neither Beijing nor Manila is expected to cede ground in their long-running territorial dispute.
Next week, vessels of the Indian Navy will join their Philippine counterparts for a series of joint exercises, in an overt expression of support by New Delhi.
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