It's been a busy and strange week in China.
Beijing and Manila got into a new argument on Monday as the saga surrounding the alleged spy balloon entered its eleventh day. Regarding lasers, this one.
China was charged by the Philippines with using a "military grade" laser light on a Philippine coast guard vessel. According to the report, the incident took place on February 6 when a Chinese coastguard vessel blocked the ship's path and used a laser device to temporarily blind the Filipino crew as it attempted to transport supplies to Filipino marines in the South China Sea.
The type of weapon the Chinese crew employed and its power are unknown, but laser weapons that are intended to impair vision are prohibited by a UN convention. Many nations, including the US, Australia, Japan, and Germany, have swiftly condemned the incident. .
For its part, China defended its right to employ lasers to safeguard its "sovereignty" before denying shining a light at the Filipino crew, claiming they had instead used "a hand-held laser speed detector and hand-held greenlight pointer," neither of which are dangerous.
Over a submerged reef, all this.
The Sierra Madre, a Philippine naval vessel that Manila uses to assert its authority in this region, was visited by the BBC in 2014. Our target was not visible on the horizon as the sun rose across the South China Sea.
The skipper, who was escorting us to the ship, yelled, "Don't worry, I know where I'm going," over the sound of the engine. On that reef, actually. " .
He gestured toward the north, where a rusting grey hulk emerged from the morning fog and was grounded atop the enormous submerged reef that was just a few feet below the surface of the water.
Even when it was new, the Sierra Madre was not a particularly impressive ship. It participated in the Vietnam War with the US navy after being constructed during World War Two as a tank landing ship. Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, she was transferred to the South Vietnamese navy and eventually ended up in the Philippines. The aging ship was purposefully beached on top of this reef in 1999, 160 km (100 miles) off the Philippine coast.
Large holes rusted straight through the hull of the ship became apparent as the small fishing boat got closer. The following typhoon appeared to be washing her away. .
Nearly ten years later, the Sierra Madre is still standing, more out of concrete and rust than steel. And a small group of Filipino marines continue to lead a perilous life at sea.
International law may have been broken by the Chinese coast guard ship's actions in blocking the Philippine ship. Whatever Beijing claims, the seas surrounding the corroding Sierra Madre are not Chinese territory.
The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a definitive ruling in 2016. There is no legal justification for China's claim to a sizable portion of the South China Sea, also known as the "nine-dash line.".
It's not quite that easy, of course. .
The South China Sea's islands, reefs, and waters are the subject of numerous claims and counterclaims. Only China's is the most substantial. Each country has overlapping claims to smaller portions of the sea, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Furthermore, most of those assertions are not supported by international law.
In addition to Second Thomas Shoal, Ayungen Shoal, and Ren-ai Reef in Chinese, the rusting Sierra Madre of the Philippines is perched atop this reef. However, since a submerged reef is not considered land, controlling one does not grant a nation new territorial waters or extend its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
In the South China Sea, there is hardly any actual land. There are a few tiny islets in the most contentious region, which is known as the Spratly Islands. The largest is known as Taiping Dao. It only measures 400 meters wide by 1,000 meters long.
It is now governed by Taiwan due to an accident of history. Pagasa is the name of the second-largest. In 30 minutes, you can complete a full circle. When the Taiwanese troops stationed there withdrew to flee a potent typhoon in 1971, the Philippines seized Pagasa. There are a few other slivers of land in Vietnam.
China, however, was too late and had no actual land because of the Cultural Revolution's internal unrest in the 1960s and 1970s. So it decided to create its own.
On Mischief Reef Atoll, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, China had started a sizable land reclamation project while a few Filipino marines clung to the rusting decks of the Sierra Madre. Massive artificial islands were being created on top of the reef by the largest ocean-going dredgers in the world pumping millions of tonnes of gravel and sand onto it.
China has created new land at Mischief Reef that is firmly ensconced within the Philippines' internationally acknowledged 320 km (200 mile) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
By international law, the new island is not recognized. It does not grant China the right to 20 km (12 miles) of exclusive economic zone. However, this hasn't stopped Beijing from enforcing its claims, displacing Philippine fishermen, and engaging Philippine coast guard vessels with the help of its sizable coastguard and maritime militia fleet.
Military strategists refer to China's new islands as "facts on the ground," or the reality, rather than an arbitrary legal concept.
There is concern in Manila that China's goals extend beyond Mischief Reef. Next could come Ayungen Shoal. This is why the Sierra Madre's rusting wreck is so significant in this context.
The government of President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. is allowing a sizable influx of US troops to return to bases in the Philippines after a 30-year absence for the same reason.
