China Parks Monster Ships In The South China Sea

China Coast Guard/PHOTO via Wikimedia Commons

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said China's largest coast guard ship had docked in the Manila exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea. The Philippines says the ship is meant to intimidate its neighboring country smaller in Asia.

The 165-meter Chinese coast guard'smass ship' entered the 200-mile-long EEZ Manila on July 2, a PCG spokesman for Jay Tarriela said at the news forum.

PCG warned Chinese ships that the ship was in the Philippine EEZ and asked about their intentions.

"This is intimidation from the Chinese Coast Guard," Tarriela said.

"We will not back down and we will not be intimidated," he added.

The Chinese ship, which also deployed a small boat, docked about less than 1 kilometer from the PCG ship.

In May, PCG deployed the ship to Sabina's shallow waters to prevent small-scale reclamation by China, which denied the claims.

China has carried out massive reclamation of land on several islands in the South China Sea, building air forces and other military facilities, raising concerns in Washington and its surrounding areas.

China claims most of the South China Sea, the main route for annual ship trade worth US$3 trillion, as its territory.

Beijing rejected the decision of the Permanent Arbitration Court based in The Hague in 2016 which declared their extensive maritime claims to have no legal basis.

After a high-level dialogue, the Philippines and China on Tuesday agreed on the need to restore trust and rebuild trust to better manage maritime disputes.

The Philippines rejected an offer from the United States, its ally of agreement, to assist operations in the South China Sea, despite disputes with China over supply mission routes to Philippine troops in contested shallow water areas.