By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-14 10:34:55 | Updated at 2025-01-14 22:53:06
12 hours ago
A Philippine security official said on Tuesday that China is “pushing us to the wall” with growing aggression in the disputed South China Sea and warned that “all options are on the table” for Manila’s response, including new international lawsuits.
On Tuesday, a large Chinese coastguard ship patrolled the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal and then sailed toward the northwestern coast of the Philippines, coming as close as 143 kilometres (77 nautical miles), Philippine officials said in a news conference.
“The presence of the monster ship in Filipino waters … 77 nautical miles from our shoreline, is unacceptable and, therefore, it should be withdrawn immediately by the Chinese government,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the National Security Council, said at the news conference alongside senior military and coastguard officials.
“You’re pushing us to the wall,” Malaya said of China.
Two Philippine coastguard ships, backed by a small surveillance aircraft, repeatedly ordered the 165-metre (541-foot) Chinese coastguard ship to withdraw from the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, a 370-kilometre (200-nautical mile) stretch of water, Philippine coastguard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
“What we’re doing there is, hour-by-hour and day-to-day, [we’re] challenging the illegal presence of the Chinese coastguard for the international community to know that we’re not going to allow China to normalise the illegal deployment,” Tarriela said.
