The tiny Pacific Island nation of Palau says China continues to intrude into its maritime zone.
“We keep on raising flags and complaining about it, but they keep on sending them,” President Surangel Whipps Jr. said in a recent interview with Agence France-Presse.
The complaint is familiar to China’s maritime neighbors in the South China Sea, particularly the Philippines. The U.S. defense treaty ally, situated about 500 miles west of Palau, is locked in a long-standing and escalating feud with China over its increasing maritime presence in the Philippine exclusive economic zone.
“They continually don’t respect our sovereignty and our boundaries and just continue to do these activities,” Whipps said.
Urs Flueeler/AFP via Getty Images
He said the most recent incursion took place on Tuesday night, the day after he was elected to lead the nation of about 18,000 for another four years.
“Once again, Chinese vessels are in our exclusive economic zone [EEZ] uninvited,” he said.
Beijing has also given Chinese names to a pair of underwater mountains within the zone. “Why? Why would you do that? Whipps asked.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines an EEZ as a zone extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from a country’s coast, within which that state alone has the right to natural resources.
Palau is closely monitoring developments in the South China Sea, most of which China asserts sovereignty over despite an international arbitral tribunal’s 2016 decision that invalidated Beijing’s claims.
“It concerns us what is happening in the Philippines, the fights over those shoals,” Whipps said.
Tensions with China have risen in recent years over Taiwan, which Beijing claims is its territory.
Palau is one of 12 countries that maintain official ties with the self-ruled democracy, and in the past five years, China has lured away three of Taiwan’s former Oceanic partners: the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru.
China dealt Palau an economic blow over its refusal to ditch Taiwan by pulling investments and ending package tours to the diver’s mecca, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the GDP.
“We’re paying the price because of our decision to continue our very important relationship with Taiwan,” Whipps told AFP. He stressed the urgent need to diversify Palau’s economy and called on allies fill the investment gap left by China.
Newsweek reached to the Palauan government with a written request for comment outside of office hours.
Asked about the Palauan president’s complaints during Wednesday’s press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said he was “not aware of the situation.” “Let me stress that China is a responsible country and has been carrying out offshore fishing and marine scientific research activities in accordance with laws and regulations.”
As friction with China mounts, the Whipps administration has invited the U.S. military to expand its presence in Palau, which lacks an army and relies on Washington for defense under their Compact of Free Association.
Last year, Whipps asked Washington to permanently station Patriot missile batteries there. The request was rejected, but the U.S. has been building infrastructure in Palau as part of its broader steps to counter China’s rising military power in the region.
One of the projects is the 6,000-foot runway the Marines rebuilt on the island of Peleliu, the site of a bloody World War II battle. The U.S. is also constructing an over-the-horizon radar station in Palau, slated for completion in 2026, to increase air domain awareness in the Pacific.