Although Indonesia has disappointed by trying to make nice with China, other neighbor-countries in the vicinity of the South China Sea or East China Sea are determined to unequivocally, or almost unequivocally, assert their rights and refrain from playing China’s dishonest games. The “almost” is necessary because even governments that now reject appeasement of China, like the Philippine government, have proved to be still capable of missteps in relation to the PRC and its fake diplomacy.
The Philippines is encouraged by a recent statement of the Group of Seven (G7), which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (“West Philippine Sea: State of Indo-Pacific concerns us all, PH tells G7,” Inquirer, November 29, 2024).
The Philippines has welcomed the Group of Seven’s (G7) “unwavering commitment” to a rules-based order in the West Philippine Sea and the wider Indo-Pacific region.
In the final G7 Foreign Ministers’ statement issued on Nov. 26, the seven states—Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, the United States, and Japan—said they “remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas.”
They underscored that there is “no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea” and again opposed Beijing’s “militarization and coercive and intimidation activities in the South China Sea” in the area.
Which is good but also seems like the bare minimum of what one would have to say to oppose China’s gray-zone aggressiveness.
The Philippine foreign affairs secretary, Enrique Manalo, who attended the G7 meeting in Italy, replied that the “state of the Indo-Pacific concerns us all…. I thank the G7 for their support for the Philippines’ principled position that bolstering a maritime order in the South China Sea, anchored on UNCLOS, is critically important to maintaining the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.”
This too beats around the bush. It’s China. China is the main disrupter of maritime order in the South China Sea.
UNCLOS is the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. It defines the exclusive economic zones of countries and discusses navigational rights and other matters. China routinely ignores all international agreements, however reasonable, when these conflict with its bellicose aims.
