China Declared Scarborough Shoal a ‘Nature Reserve’. The Philippines Considers This a ‘Pretext for Occupation’

China has declared the controversial Scarborough Shoal a ‘nature reserve,’ effectively beginning the process of occupying it.

This is reported by Reuters.

The Scarborough Shoal, which is called Huangyan Island in China, has been the subject of years of disputes over ownership between China and the Philippines, despite a ruling by the Hague arbitration court.

Beijing is planning to use its increased naval power to expand its influence and de facto occupy territories in the South China Sea.

According to China’s Foreign Minister, Scarborough Shoal will be turned into a ‘nature reserve’, which will be an ‘important guarantee’ of preserving the atoll’s ecosystem.

At the same time, experts warn that China may also build infrastructure for military use, as it has done many times before.

Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo Año openly accused China of attempting to seize the territory.

At the same time, the US government also condemned Beijing’s actions, calling them destabilizing:

“Beijing’s claim that Scarborough Reef is a nature reserve is yet another attempt at coercion to advance large-scale territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors, including by preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing traditional fishing grounds.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, which overlaps with the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, in violation of international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Despite this, some countries are preparing for a confrontation with Beijing. In particular, Vietnam is building up its military presence on the islands of the South China Sea claimed by China.

Satellite imagery has shown large-scale dredging and filling works on the islands of the Spratly archipelago, in particular in the area of Alison, Collins, East, Landsdowne, and Loop reefs.

Beijing, in turn, has said that Hanoi was building on ‘illegally occupied’ islands and reefs in the South China Sea.