The defense minister of Sweden, Pål Jonson, is alarmed, as defense ministers everywhere should be, by China’s harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.
Speaking at a reception after having met with the Philippine defense minister, Jonson expressed his “deep concern on the repeated dangerous maneuvers against Philippines vessels that have been taking place in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.”
But Associated Press reports that he was too coy to name the culprit, China, in his speech (“Swedish defense chief says actions against Philippines in South China Sea threaten global security,” June 7, 2024).
China’s use of powerful water cannons had damaged Philippine vessels, injured several Filipino navy personnel, and strained diplomatic relations. Manila has filed diplomatic protests and publicized Chinese actions against the Philippine coast guard and navy vessels in an effort to gain international support.
“These acts put human lives at risk, they undermine regional stability and international law and they threaten the security in the region and beyond,” Jonson said. “These are not only threats to your national security but threats to our common global security.”
The Philippines coast guard belatedly reported Friday that one of its high-speed boats was blocked and surrounded by Chinese coast guard vessels as it approached a Philippine territorial outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal on May 19 to get a sick Filipino military sailor from a navy boat deployed near the shoal outpost….
Despite the dangerous blockings, the Philippine coast guard said the medical evacuation was carried out successfully.
After the incident, a Chinese spokesman said that evacuating the sick Filipino would have been fine with China if the Chinese government had been notified in advance. If the Philippines were to start asking China whether Philippine vessels may move here and move there in waters near the Philippines, it would be conceding that its vessels have no right to do so without China’s permission. Permission that China would be eager to routinely refuse.
In June 2022, The Diplomat noted a sweeping change in the attitudes of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, once eager to be chummy with the PRC. “China is…increasingly seen as an adversary with hostile intentions, thereby instilling a new sense of cautiousness and distrust into bilateral relationships with Beijing.”
A Swedish report “singles out China (along with Russia and Iran) as ‘hostile states [that] target everything from our constitutional rights and freedoms to our economic prosperity, political decision-making and territorial sovereignty.’ ” According to a Danish report, “China is adopting increasingly hard-handed and assertive measures to quell criticism of the Chinese Communist Party’s policies and China’s political system,” concerns echoed in Norway.
In May 2022, Global Taiwan Institute reported that a bipartisan group of Swedish members of parliament “has called on the government to support Taiwan the same way they have supported Ukraine since February.”
