Clash on the High Seas

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
Rowhome Productions.

**Jane Perlez** (0:06)
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation. It's a modern-day David vs Goliath story set on the high seas as ships from China and the Philippines play chicken in the waters of the South China Sea.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
Chinese Coast Guard mission number 21559 This is MM-OBE-3002.

**Jane Perlez** (0:30)
That's the sound of a Philippine Coast Guard boat warning off a larger Chinese ship that is sailing dangerously close and blocking the smaller Philippine boat from delivering supplies to its Marines stationed well within Philippine waters.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:45)
Your unsafe manoeuvres are in clear violation of your obligations.

**Jane Perlez** (0:49)
These large Chinese ships have become increasingly aggressive. Very aggressive, in fact. Circling smaller Philippine vessels, shooting water cannons, and causing near-collisions. What is the Chinese government's intention?

**Marites Vitug** (1:12)
China wants the Philippines to give up its sovereign rights over parts of the South China Sea, which we call the West Philippine Sea.

**Jane Perlez** (1:21)
To take everything, according to Filipino journalist Marites Vitug.

**Marites Vitug** (1:26)
We have more water than land, so our fishermen derive their livelihood from fishing in these waters of the West Philippine Sea.

**Jane Perlez** (1:36)
But this isn't just about fishing rights. China claims 80 to 90% of the sea as its own ancient territory. An ancient territory which encompasses modern-day territory claimed by five smaller nations, including the sovereign waters of the Philippines. And in just over a decade, China has made good on its claims, occupying uninhabited atolls, building artificial islands complete with military bases, runways for fighter jets, facilities for missiles. There's a larger, more global game at play here, says Marites, and it hinges on the Philippines' alliance with the US.

**Marites Vitug** (2:17)
China wants to break this alliance apart by dominating the South China Sea and being the economic, political, security giant in this part of the world. They just want to edge out or displace America. They want the South China Sea to be their lake, their own lake.

**Jane Perlez** (2:37)
But the South China Sea is hardly a little lake. It's a vast swath of water, 134% bigger than the Mediterranean. It's a conduit for more than $3 trillion worth of trade, much of it between the US and China. Could China's battle to control the South China Sea be more serious, even calamitous, to relations between the US and China than Taiwan?
I'm Jane Perlez. This is FaceOff. This week on the show, the Philippines and the Battle for Control of the South China Sea. The Philippines has long historic ties to the US. It was an American colonial territory from the late 19th century until 1935, and it's been a close ally since. The two nations are bound by a mutual defense treaty that's been in place since 1951 Safe to say that this high seas drama between Filipino and Chinese Coast Guard vessels could easily become a flashpoint to a larger conflict. It's a dangerous game with a lot at stake. Our guest today is Maritas Vitug. She has been covering the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea for years. She's an editor at large at Rappler, a popular Filipino news site, as well as a host on the YouTube news program WorldView. I began by asking Maritas to outline the commercial and strategic importance of the South China Sea to the Philippines.

**Marites Vitug** (4:22)
It's really a matter of determining your own sovereignty, asserting your own sovereignty. So why should we want China to take over what is part of our exclusive economic zone? As I said earlier, our fishing rights, our trade rights. Also, there's a lot of marine and scientific research going on, and China wants to dominate this field as well. But we have a few scientists already based in Titus Island, which is the biggest feature the Philippines occupies in the West Philippine Sea.

**Jane Perlez** (5:01)
There's also oil and gas in the sea, I think. Is that correct?

**Marites Vitug** (5:05)
Definitely. Reed Bank, which again is part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, is said to be very rich in oil and gas. And China has been stopping the Philippines from exploring and drilling for the past many years until today. So we have not explored the full potential of Reed Bank.

**Jane Perlez** (5:29)
So let's go back a little ways to get to the origin story of this. When I first went to China as a New York Times correspondent in 2012, Xi Jinping had just come to power. And China made a play to take over a beautiful place called Scarborough Shoal that is in Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The shoal is about 125 miles off the Filipino coast. It's about 60 square miles. That's nearly as big as Washington, DC. It's incredibly big. China has occupied the shoal for more than a decade now. When I first got to China, they managed to get hold of it. Tell us, how did China get control of that shoal? Tell us a little bit about the drama. There was quite a bit of drama.