Amid escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea, Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said exposing China’s “gray zone operations” will allow international bodies to criticize the “activities” of Beijing in the Indo-Pacific.
Gray zone operations are intended to assert territorial claims through non-military means such as the deployment of Coast Guard vessels, maritime militias, and the fortification of islands and elevations.
“The Philippine Coast Guard’s persistent presence in patrolling the contested waters while at the same time documenting China’s activities allowed the international community to criticize their (China’s) actions that violate international law and violate international rules based order,” Tarriela said in a forum organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute, in partnership with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippines on Wednesday.
Experts likewise urged the government to stand up against Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea and engage in collective deterrence with like-minded allies.
Maritime law expert Professor Jay Batongbacal said Chinese operations in the West Philippine Sea are now becoming “more and more clearly hostile and aggressive.”
Last month, the Chinese Coast Guard beamed a military-grade laser light on a PCG ship in Ayungin Shoal. Several days ago, the PCG reported the presence of a People’s Liberation Army Navy vessel, a China Coast Guard vessel, and 42 suspected Chinese Maritime Militia vessels within the surrounding waters of Pag-asa island.
Batongbacal urged the government to carefully consider how to prepare reasonable and proportionate responses to threats and activities undertaken by China against Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea.
“We should not be afraid to consider proportional and reasonable responses. We should not shy away every time they make threatening moves and then we retreat for fear of provocation… There should be no gray area anymore. We need to begin erasing the grey zone. We need to begin acting and standing up for our lawful maritime rights. This is the only way we can move that forward. Otherwise, we might as well retreat and give up everything,” he said.
“We should not be doing everything on our own only. We should also consider talking closely with and coordinating with allies and friends so we can engage in collective deterrence. We should be together engaging in contingency planning and coordinating our policies, our activities, our responses, so that we may all be acting under a kind of united front. We should demonstrate to China that its grey zone activities and various other shenanigans will no longer be effective because there will be a united and collective response from all fronts wherever they may be,” he added.
Stratbase President Dindo Manhit also urged the current administration to cooperate with like-minded states through joint patrols and maritime domain awareness.
“The Philippines and other Indo-Pacific states must engage in strategies that will ultimately change China’s behavior to be symbiotic with the internationally established rules-based order.
Instead of coercion, states must strengthen cooperation in bilateral, multilateral, and minilateral means,” Manhit said.
“China’s activities within Philippine territory, driven by its expansionist ambitions and militarization, cannot be allowed,” he added.
International Studies Professor Renato De Castro said theexpected response to an emerging threat is to attempt to balance against it.
“To limit China’s ability to conduct gray zone operations against the Philippines requires Manila, Washington, Canberra, and Tokyo to convey strong signals of commitment for mutual assistance through security agreements, troop deployments, arms transfers, and multinational exercises, thereby reducing the Philippines’ sense of insecurity,” De Castro said.
He also recommended the development of a surveillance system to continuously monitor Chinese grey operations.
“This requires the development of a region wide surveillance network that can detect, identify, and monitor Chinese vessels that are positioned for gray zone operations in the West Philippine Sea,” de Castro said.
Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation Fellow Col. Raymond Powell (ret.) urged the government to engage the public, get the help of independent analysts, storytellers, influencers, and the media, and utilize commercially available maritime data to deter Chinese gray zone activities.
“Exposure is key to deterring and building resilience against them,” he said.
The solution, Powell said, is to “light up the maritime gray zone” by giving access to commercially available maritime data to credible independent analysts, influencers and media.
“An engaged public is key to deterring gray zone actors and building national resilience,” Powell said.
For her part, German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel said the Indo-Pacific Region has been showing signs of “increasing nervousness and unease.
“As eyes are focused in Ukraine, there is an increasing nervousness and unease in the Indo- Pacific. The Indo-Pacific has become the new arena for strategic competition. The South China Sea is a vital waterway that sees a significant amount of global trade and is home to numerous small island chains, including the Spratly Islands, or Paracel Islands,” the German diplomat said.
