China accuses Philippines of escalating tensions in South China Sea

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China has been ramping up pressure on its neighbors, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, attempting to force them to cede their maritime claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.

China uses an arbitrary boundary drawn by Beijing, the so-called ?nine-dash line,? to claim the bulk of the sea, while portraying its opponents defending their rights under international law as aggressors.

Tensions are particularly high between China and the Philippines.

Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on November 12, his country had become the victim of ?Chinese aggression.?

"What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area.?

Frequent reports of Chinese Coast Guard ships ramming Philippines vessels, deploying water cannons and military-grade lasers against them underscore Teodoro?s allegations.

Yet Beijing claims it is the Philippines, not China, who is ratcheting up tensions.

When Reuters asked Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian about Teodoro?s allegations, Lin replied:

?Every escalation between China and the Philippines ? without exception ? has been caused by Philippine provocations and violation of China?s sovereignty. Calm will return once the Philippines stops those activities.?

That is false.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague rejected China?s sweeping claims to the South China Sea, ruling they violated the Philippines' rights to its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and territorial waters.

While signatory to the treaty, China has ignored that ruling and disregarded the Philippines? rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which outlines the territorial waters of China?s neighbors.

On November 8, the Philippines signed measures reinforcing their internationally recognized rights over the country?s maritime zones.

China responded by repeating the false claim that the 2016 Hague ruling ?is illegal, null and void,? and accused the United States of ?inciting the Philippines to provoke unrest in the South China Sea.?

On November 10, Beijing published geographic coordinates of straight baselines for the Scarborough Shoal, a maritime feature, which lies 220 kilometers east of the Philippines island of Luzon.

Baselines refer to the low water mark along a coast from which a territorial sea is measured. The territorial sea stretches 12 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state.

China seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and maintains a blockade there. On November 13, China held air and sea combat drills around the shoal.