US accuses China over Scarborough Reef access

The United States criticised China on Saturday for using a claimed national nature reserve at Scarborough Reef to deny Filipino fishermen access and advance Beijing’s South China Sea claims, the State Department said.

“The United States rejects China’s ongoing attempts to enforce its destabilizing ‘national nature reserve’ at Scarborough Reef and deny Filipino fishermen access to their traditional fishing ground,” the department said in a statement quoted by Al Jazeera and Reuters. It said China was using “dubious environmental and legal pretexts, backed by coercion” to advance its territorial and maritime claims.

The State Department said Washington “stands with our Ally, the Philippines, in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” The statement followed weeks of tensions after Chinese ships fired water cannon on Filipino fishing vessels near Scarborough Shoal, an area claimed by both China and the Philippines in a decades-long dispute.

Scarborough Reef lies near Luzon. The Philippines took its case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which largely dismissed China’s sweeping claims as unlawful under international maritime law, according to the report. China refused to participate in the arbitration and continues to advance the “nine-dash line,” a looping border asserting Chinese sovereignty across much of the South China Sea.

China has become more assertive in the region in recent years by constructing artificial islands and intercepting Philippine fishermen in contested waters. Critics speculate China wants to turn its South China Sea claims into greater economic heft and military power. More than $3 trillion worth of goods pass through the sea annually.

The report said the United States has used such disputes to advance its position in Asia and often backs regional allies against Beijing. In April, the US held joint military operations with Canada and Australia in the region. At an ASEAN meeting in Manila in July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned China’s use of water cannon against Filipino vessels, saying: “We have a role, and we’re not going to abandon our allies.”