China stages military drills near contested South China Sea shoal

BEIJING — China carried out joint naval and air exercises near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Saturday, as tensions with the Philippines over competing territorial claims continue to rise.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the drills, conducted near the shoal—known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines—were aimed at testing the military’s capability to coordinate air and maritime operations and rapidly deploy reinforcements.

The drills came after Beijing criticized Manila’s attempts to extend its seabed rights in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil that China claims almost in its entirety.

The Philippines earlier this week presented its bid to the United Nations to extent its seabed to include the disputed shoal.

“The so-called territorial sea baselines of Huangyan Dao designated by the Philippine side are illegal and invalid,” the People Liberation’s Army Southern Theater Command said in a statement.

China also on Saturday released a set of rules for a nature reserve it established last year around Scarborough Shoal. The regulations ban unauthorized fishing, mining and harvesting of corals.

Chinese coast guards frequently face off with Philippine sailors and fishermen in the disputed waters. Last week, at least three such confrontations occurred. In one of the incidents, the Chinese coast guard allegedly wounded a Philippine sailor by striking him in the head with a baton, according to the Philippine military.

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