South China Sea: Beijing risks conflict with Philippines over ‘Monster’ ship to enforce anti-trespassing policy

The 165-metre Chinese coastguard vessel with bow number 5901, nicknamed “The Monster”, was seen on Friday 93km (50 nautical miles) off the Scarborough Shoal, a highly contested maritime feature, accompanied by another 102-metre long coastguard ship. Beijing refers to the shoal as Huangyan Island while Manila has named it Panatag Shoal.

The location of the two vessels put them within the Philippines’ 370-kilometre wide exclusive economic zone.

“It was sent there as a gatekeeper to help enforce the law soon. It only shows there’s friction between the Philippines and China in the Panatag Shoal … like a Cold War,” Espeña told reporters on Saturday during an interview.

When asked about possible scenarios should China proceed with its new policy, Espeña said the Philippines would be forced to resist arrests seen as acts of aggression.

“The Marcos government is urged to strongly communicate this to the Chinese side to dissuade any untoward incidents such as this. As Marcos mentioned in an interview during his working visit to Australia, the regional conflict might be triggered because of miscalculations.

“But it is also telling that Beijing is forcing Manila’s hand into this dangerous scenario by decisively calculating that arrests will make them achieve their objectives overnight,” Espeña told This Week in Asia in a separate interview.

“We can imagine a tit-for-tat scenario from mere arrest to a deadly stand-off into a limited regional conflict as the Philippine security forces seek to rescue Filipino fishers in any case. This will be followed by China’s entry of the People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels to dissuade the Philippines from making further moves. This inevitably would involve the Philippine armed forces entering into a