On the coast of Ilocos Sur, in the north of the Philippines, fishermen of tuligan, which Westerners call skipjack tuna, have been bringing back more than fish for a few weeks, in the evening on their return. “Fear now accompanies us when we go to sea,” says Allan, in his early thirties, while helping a group of friends, also fishermen, to clear the landing zone of the fishing port of Salomague d’ a cumbersome debris rejected earlier by the waters. “You feel more and more tension off and it’s not something we like. »
Simple and peaceful, the daily life of these tuna, mackerel and sardine fishermen in the South China Sea has been placed for several months on a new tone while Beijing is showing itself to be more and more aggressive in this corner of the globe.
The recent rapprochement of the government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with the United States, on the strategic question of the close neighbor that is Taiwan, an independent territory claimed by China, but whose democratic regime is defended by Washington, has set fire to the powders.
Since then, the Chinese navy has waged a campaign of systematic intimidation and harassment of Philippine ships, particularly around several reefs in the Philippines whose ownership is disputed by the Chinese regime.
In late April, nearly 100 vessels “suspected from the Chinese maritime militia”, the “People’s Liberation Army Navy” and the Chinese Coast Guard were spotted by the Philippine Coast Guard in Philippine territorial waters. All refused to comply with the orders issued by radio to leave these national maritime zones, specifies the government body in a recent press release.
China, which is no longer afraid to come into direct confrontation with the Philippine Coast Guard patrol boats, as it did a few days ago off the island of Pag-asa, has also multiplied its presence on the Panatag shoal, the Scarborough reef at the heart of a dispute between Beijing and Manila, to prevent Filipino fishermen from taking advantage of its fish-rich waters.
“The foreign policy of the Philippines is changing and that’s what irritates the Chinese”, summarizes in an interview with the Duty Michael Marcos Keon, ex-governor of the Ilocos Norte region, geographically placed from the north of the country at the forefront of these new tensions in the China Sea. “The ex-president [Rodrigo Duterte] was closer to China and Russia, which was certainly a mistake in the current global geopolitical context. From now on, it is Americans that we need to protect us and face China in the seas that surround us, ”continues the cousin of the new president.
military exercises
The change of course has begun and is now giving visible signs in the north of the region, past Cape Bojeador, along the national road, where last week there was still the presence of Philippine army trucks that took part in the Balikatan military exercises, vintage 2023. This year, 12,000 American soldiers participated, making this annual event within the Manila armed forces the largest military collaboration between the two countries.
Washington has also just signed an agreement with Manila to temporarily occupy four new military bases in the Philippines. This brings the total number of places where the United States can station or resupply its troops to nine, under the terms of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
The country of the Marcos represented the missing link for the United States in its construction of a line of military alliances extending from South Korea and Japan to southern Australia, in this point of the globe under tension by Beijing’s desire to bring Taiwan and its economic power back into its fold.
Two of these new bases, one in Santa Ana, in the north, and the other at Lal-Lo airport, in the Cagayan region, place the American forces just a stone’s throw from the independent territory. self-proclaimed and democratic, brought into the world by the exile in 1949 of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Nationalist Party, after the victory of Mao’s communists during the civil war in China.
Washington says it wants, through this presence, to allow “faster support” in the event of “humanitarian disasters” and “respond to other common challenges”, commented the Pentagon, without referring to China and Taiwan.
Beijing, for its part, has denounced this agreement in recent weeks, which aggravates “regional tensions and undermines regional peace and stability”, according to the Xi Jinping regime.
Soon Taiwanese refugees?
“We never imagined that refugees from Taiwan might one day land on our shores,” says political scientist Karl Lenin Benigno, who teaches at North Western University in Laoag, in the northern Philippines. But it’s something that, however unlikely, could unfortunately become a reality, and we’re ill-prepared for it. »
“However, the American presence is seen by many here with as much concern as the Chinese threat itself,” he adds. They are afraid that this presence will draw Chinese forces towards us and lead to the destruction of our vital infrastructure in the event of a conflict. »
A less and less hypothetical conflict, judging by the level of tension perceived offshore by fishermen, but which some still prefer not to believe. “We are a small, uneventful country with a hardworking and kind population,” said Dominador Mendoza, an old fisherman we met in the port of Salomague. We only want peace with our neighbors and the rest of the world. A war will not be good for anyone. »
An opinion shared last week by Fernando Nipal, manager of the Maglaoi Norte cargo port, in Gaang Bay, where Chinese ships regularly come to disembark and embark goods. “We follow like everyone else what happens in the news, he said, but we also remain calm. If our relationship with China were to deteriorate, it’s mainly the Chinese who will pay the price, because they do a lot of business here. A large number of Filipino businessmen, in our region and in the country, are dual nationals. They have every interest in ensuring that the sea that separates the Philippines from China remains calm. »
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.