2011 report to congress - U.S.-China Economic and Security Review ...

dkrause on DSKHT7XVN1PROD with $$_JOB168two Chinese patrol boats aggressively approached and chased awaya seismic survey vessel conducting an assessment of a gas field inthe Philippines’ EEZ near the disputed Spratly Islands. The vessel,chartered by the British energy consortium Forum Energy, wasconducting work on behalf of the Philippine government. 85 The incidentprompted harsh responses from the Philippines in the followingmonths. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announcedplans to take the dispute over the Spratly Islands to the UnitedNations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. 86 He alsovowed to bolster the Philippines’ military power in order to protectits economic interests in the face of growing Chinese assertiveness.In June, the Philippines announced a $252 million upgrade for itsnavy and deployed its largest warship to patrol the South ChinaSea. 87 In September, the Philippines allocated an additional $118million for the purchase of a navy patrol vessel, six helicopters, andother hardware to secure the perimeter of the country’s largest gasextraction project, which is located 50 miles from a Philippine islandnear waters claimed by China. 88 President Aquino also calledon the United States, a treaty partner, to help the Philippinesstand up to the Chinese. 89Vietnamese officials reported that Chinese boats harassed Vietnameseoil and gas surveying ships operating in the South ChinaSea on two separate occasions in 2011. In the first incident, whichoccurred in late May, state oil company PetroVietnam alleged thatwhile it was conducting seismic operations, Chinese airplanes harassedthe company’s ships, and three Chinese marine surveillancevessels subsequently cut the company’s survey cables. 90 The secondincident occurred in June and involved a Chinese patrol boat cuttingthe cable of a Vietnamese oil-drilling research vessel. 91 Bothincidents occurred in Vietnam’s EEZ, less than 200 nautical milesfrom the Vietnamese coast, and the second of the incidents occurredmore than 600 nautical miles from China’s island provinceof Hainan. 92 In previous years, Chinese patrol boats typically onlyharassed fishermen, not oil and gas vessels. 93Deep sea oil rig stationed in the South China Sea—China hasbuilt an advanced, deep-water oil rig that it plans to use in theSouth China Sea. Launched in the summer of 2011, the $1 billionoil rig, owned by the Chinese state-owned oil company China NationalOffshore Oil Corporation, is China’s first deep-water drillingrig and allows China to drill in deeper waters than ever before. 94The exact location of the rig was unclear at the time of the publicationof this Report. The Philippines has expressed concern and hasasked China’s embassy to clarify the exact location of the plannedrig. 95Harassment of Vietnamese and Philippine fishermen—Vietnameseand Philippine fishermen reported an uptick in harassmentby Chinese maritime patrol boats in early 2011, including thethreatening of fishermen and the seizure and confiscation of fishing, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waterssuperjacent to the sea-bed and of the sea-bed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activitiesfor the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy fromthe water, currents and winds.’’ United Nations, ‘‘Exclusive Economic Zones,’’ United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (New York, New York: December 10, 1982). http://www.un.org/Depts/los/conventionlagreements/texts/unclos/part5.htm.VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:46 Nov 10, 2011 Jkt 067464 PO 00000 Frm 00180 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 G:\GSDD\USCC\2011\067464.XXX 067464