This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has conducted sea and air combat readiness drills in the South China Sea as the Philippines and its ally the United States held joint exercises in disputed waters in the region, the PLA Southern Theater Command said.
The Chinese joint air-and-sea patrols were held on Jan. 17-18 – just one day after a China-Philippines bilateral consultation meeting – “to maintain peace and stability in the area,” the command said in a statement.
“Any military activity that stirs up trouble in the South China Sea is within our control,” the Chinese command said.
It did not specify the exact location of the PLA drills, but on Friday the Philippine navy held a so-called sovereignty patrol with a live-fire exercise near Scarborough Shoal, followed by joint maritime activities with the U.S. Navy on Friday and Saturday.
Scarborough Shoal is a hotly disputed chain of reefs inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, but China holds de-facto control and has deployed its large coast guard vessels to the area to exert power since the beginning of the year.
The Philippine frigate BRP Antonio Luna and patrol vessels BRP Ramon Alcaraz and BRP Andres Bonifacio took part in the “sovereignty patrol,” Manila said, adding that it was aimed at “sustaining and improving the operational proficiency of both assets and personnel.”
First joint drills in 2025
The guided-missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna also participated in the two-day joint exercise with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. 7th Fleet, which operates in the region, said in a press release.
The first bilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity of the year is “designed to emphasize our longstanding partnership between the two militaries in the maritime domain,” it said.
The show of force included the U.S. Navy Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group and a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, alongside Philippine patrol vessel BRP Andrés Bonifacio and the BRP Antonio Luna.
The Philippine Navy also deployed two FA-50 fighters to take part in the exercise.
“The U.S. and the Philippines are ironclad allies,” Rear Adm. Michael Wosje, commander of Carrier Strike Group 1 was quoted as saying. “As fellow maritime nations, we share the common goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific, assuring access to the seas.”
“Bilateral exercises in the region have grown in scale, scope and complexity,” said Capt. Matthew Thomas, commanding officer of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
Tensions between the Philippines and China have been escalating in the last few months, with regular confrontations between their coast guard vessels.
One day before China’s drills, on Jan. 16, officials from the two countries met under a bilateral consultation mechanism and agreed to seek common ground and find ways to cooperate to ease the tension in the South China Sea.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro said in her opening remarks at the talks that she believed there was always “genuine space for diplomatic and pragmatic cooperation.”
Yet with the drills taking place so soon after the talks, it seems a solution remains far out of reach.
China has lodged “serious protests regarding the Philippines’ recent maritime infringement and provocative activities as well as its peddling of the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.
