China’s plan to construct a nature reserve within the Scarborough Shoal brings robust responses from the Philippines and US.
Printed On 13 Sep 2025
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed help for Manila’s opposition to Beijing’s plan to designate the contested Scarborough Shoal as a “nature reserve”, characterising the transfer as a part of a broader Chinese language technique of coercion within the South China Sea.
“The US stands with our Philippine ally in rejecting China’s destabilising plans to ascertain a ‘nationwide nature reserve’ at Scarborough Reef,” Rubio wrote on the X social media platform on Friday.
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“That is one more coercive try and advance China’s pursuits on the expense of its neighbours and regional stability,” Rubio mentioned.
“… Claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature protect is one other instance of Beijing utilizing stress techniques to push expansive maritime and territorial claims, disregarding the rights of neighbouring international locations,” he added in an announcement.
On Wednesday, China’s State Council revealed its intention to ascertain a nature reserve spanning 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) on the disputed islet, describing the initiative as an “vital assure for sustaining … variety, stability and sustainability”.
Whereas Scarborough Shoal lies 240km (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ fundamental island of Luzon and is included within the nation’s unique financial zone, it has been beneath Beijing’s management since 2012.
China’s nature reserve plans drew a string of robust responses from the Philippines, the place the Division of Overseas Affairs promised on Thursday to lodge a “formal diplomatic protest towards this illegitimate and illegal motion”.
In accordance with the Philippine Star information outlet, Philippine Nationwide Safety Adviser Eduardo Ano mentioned China’s deliberate “Huangyan Island Nationwide Nature Reserve” is “patently unlawful”.
Ano cited violations of the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 2016 arbitral ruling in favour of Manila relating to China’s claims within the sea, and the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Events within the South China Sea.
“This transfer by the Folks’s Republic of China is much less about defending the atmosphere and extra about justifying its management over a maritime function that’s a part of the territory of the Philippines and its waters lie inside the unique financial zone of the Philippines,” Ano was quoted within the newspaper.
“It’s a clear pretext in direction of eventual occupation,” he mentioned.
Main Filipino enterprise newspaper BusinessWorld included excerpts from analysts who mentioned Beijing is probably going testing Manila’s resolve in asserting its declare over the area.
“China will seemingly wish to see what the response shall be from the Philippines,” mentioned Julio S. Amador III, chief govt officer at Manila-based geopolitical danger agency Amador Analysis Providers.
“If it sees that there isn’t any efficient pushback, then there’s a robust chance that it’s going to attempt to do the identical over different options,” Amador mentioned.
Final month, the Philippines, Australia and Canada held joint naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal to simulate aerial assaults and the way to counter such threats.
China, for its half, has insisted it would defend the world.
China asserts sovereignty over practically all the South China Sea – a strategic maritime hall by means of which greater than $3 trillion in commerce passes every year – regardless of competing territorial claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
