《TAIPEI TIMES》 Chinese boats gather at disputed reef

/ AP and Reuters, MANILA

The Philippines’ defense minister called on China on Sunday to recall about 220 Chinese fishing vessels it believes are crewed by militias spotted in the disputed South China Sea, saying the presence of the vessels is “a clear provocative action of militarizing the area.”

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“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

A Philippine government body overseeing the disputed region late on Saturday said that the Chinese vessels were seen moored at Whitsun Reef on March 7.

It released photographs of the vessels lying side-by-side in one of the most hotly contested areas of the strategic waterway.

The reef, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is a boomerang-shaped and shallow coral region about 175 nautical miles （324km） west of Bataraza town in the western Philippine province of Palawan.

It is well within the country’s exclusive economic zone, over which the Philippines “enjoys the exclusive right to exploit or conserve any resources,” the agency said in a statement.

The large number of Chinese boats are “a concern due to the possible overfishing and destruction of the marine environment, as well as risks to safety of navigation,” it said.

However, it added that the vessels were not fishing when sighted.

Asked if the Philippines would file a protest, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr wrote on Twitter: “Only if the generals tell me.”

Taiwan, Brunei, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam have been locked in a tense territorial standoff over the resource-rich and busy waterway for decades.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES