A fleet of Chinese vessels squatting in the disputed waters of the South China Sea is damaging the environment with a stream of sewage, according to satellite imagery that has Beijing steaming and provoked a complaint from Philippine officials.
“It is a serious defamation against China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, per the South China Morning Post. “China expresses its strong condemnation.”
Chinese officials adopted a more lighthearted posture in the transcript of the press briefing Thursday, which quoted Zhao as saying that the report is “one of the best joke[s] recently.” The underlying dispute is no laughing matter, however, as the assembled vessels represent an assertion of Chinese sovereignty over waters claimed by the Philippines in a region prized by military strategists across the globe.
“When the ships don’t move, the poop piles up,” Simularity CEO Liz Derr, whose company conducts geospatial imagery analysis of the South China Sea, said this week. “We’ve done this from space because that’s really all anybody can do right now because the area is really militarized, but I wholeheartedly encourage the government to validate our findings, question our findings, understand the science, and see for themselves.”
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The vessels dropped anchor in March, with Beijing portraying the fleet as fishermen seeking shelter from prospective bad weather. International observers regard the fleet rather as a move by China’s maritime militia to reinforce Beijing’s claim to control over the waters around the Spratly Islands — valuable waters for Philippine fishermen that are now home to Chinese military outposts constructed on artificial islands.
“The continuous swarming of Chinese vessels poses a threat to the safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, and impedes the exclusive right of Filipinos to benefit from marine wealth in the [Philippines’s exclusive economic zone],” a Philippine government agency protested this week.
Simularity’s report surfaced as U.S. and Philippine officials marked the fifth anniversary of an international tribunal’s ruling that China’s claim to sovereignty in the area is illegitimate.
“We call on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries, big and small,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week.
China’s aggression in the region has benefited from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s hesitance to confront Beijing, but the report of the damage done by the sewage stirred the president’s team.
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“Our position on the entry of waste and garbage is clear,” Duterte spokesman Harry Roque told reporters Thursday. “If proven, if the wastes are not returned to their source, they can hear harsh words and a warning that they should stop it because the Philippines is not a toilet of anyone.”
