China-Philippines Relations Poor - Chinese oil & submarine channel surveying

China is disadvantaged in being far from its main Persian Gulf sources of oil. Go here, scroll 1/4 way down and click on "China" tab. The Indian, and even more so, US navies can, in the Indian Ocean, block oil from reaching China. Hence China is trying to organise much closer sources of oil that China can control and extract itself in the South China Sea. China's needs and actions are influencing Philippine politics much more than in past years.

Philippine President Duterte and his Defence Minister/Secretary Delfin Lorenzana appear to have a more nuanced attitude (and disagree) about China's expansion into the South China Sea.

Lorenzana said on March 9, 2017 that he was "disturbed" by what he believes are survey missions by Chinese ships deep into the Philippines' 200nm exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Chinese survey missions included a warship detected 70 miles off the Philippine west coast and Chinese survey ships seen in the Philippines’ northeast and southeast seaboard.

Lorenzana voiced frustration on March 9 that since Duterte took office eight months ago, the Philippines had submitted about 12 requests to the Chinese Embassy to explain its maritime activities, but each time the Chinese Embassy had denied they had taken place.

The Philippines won an international arbitration decision in 2016 that invalidated China's claims to a Nine-Dash Line sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea. Duterte did not seek Chinese compliance but instead bartered the arbitration decision for $Billions in Chinese aid and soft loans.

Duterte seems to accept Chinese island building and its claims not because of good China-Philippine relations but because the Chinese military is so powerful the Philippine armed forces couldn't resist it. Chinese claims (on map above) include:

-  Benham Rise (or Plateau) is a 13 million hectare under sea region east of Luzon and is 35 meters underwater at its shallowest point. The "probability is extremely very high" there are massive oil deposits at Benham Rise. Lorenzana said that satellite imagery provided by allies [Pete Comment.  Probably the US] had tracked Chinese vessels for three months last year in Benham Rise, a vast area declared by the United Nations to be part of the Philippines' continental shelf.

-  Scarborough Shoal - (called Panatag Shoal by the Philippines and Huangyan Dao Reef by China) - a triangular atoll located 220 kilometers west of Luzon. The Shoal area may contain undersea oil. Duterte is allowing Chinese structures "environmental monitoring station" to be built on the Scarborough because China is too powerful and that even the US could not stop China, and

SUBMARINE RELEVANCE?

Lorenzana had received information suggesting China may be surveying seas (in Philippine waters) to map submarine channels for access to open Pacific waters. He said he had told the Philippine Navy to intercept Chinese survey vessels if they return [Pete Comment - Actual Philippine interception of Chinese naval survey vessels is highly unlikely].

See an earlier Submarine Matters' article China's South China Sea Island Base Building of September 24, 2015. This covered China's gradual militarization of Subi Reef, Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, all in the Spratly Islands, South China Sea. Now Benham Rise and Scarborough Shoal appear less military and more oil/gas exploration phase. By military island building China graphically signals how serious it is and then oil/gas exploration can proceed unhindered by countries with less conventional military power than China (ie. all countries except the US).

Pete