China has actually released a patrol vessel from its Coast Guard to the Scarborough Shoal, the current salvo in its continual pressure campaign versus Philippine-claimed features in the challenged South China Sea, ship-tracking information shows.

The China Coast Guard (CCG) ship 3302 was at Scarborough Shoal since Wednesday, Radio Free Asia can verify. It left the port of Sanya, Hainan province, China, on Sunday.

Its release indicates CCG ships are currently patrolling almost all of the ‘hotspots’ challenged in between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. That’s taking place at a time of restored diplomatic stress after Manila released a declaration on Wednesday straight slamming China over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel.

At the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal, another CCG ship, the 5302, has actually been patrolling near considering that March 6, as reported by RFA last week The ship was still at that place on Wednesday.

On The Other Hand, the CCG ship Haijing 5202 has actually been near Thitu Island, another function declared by the Philippines, considering that April 3.

Thitu Island has actually been the focus of an extended Chinese existence, as reported by the Asia Maritime Openness Effort. Maritime militia appear to have actually left the location, leaving just the 5202, satellite images shows.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has actually looked for closer ties with China considering that he took office almost 4 years back. He has actually looked for to tamp down the stress that flared under his predecessor, when Manila effectively challenged the legal basis of Beijing’s extensive South China Sea claims in a case prior to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

However bucking that pattern, on Wednesday the Philippines signed up with Hanoi and Washington in slamming Beijing over the April 2 sinking of the Vietnamese vessel in a fight with a China Coast Guard ship.

The Philippine foreign office released what it called a “statement of solidarity” with Hanoi. The declaration rebuked Beijing for the event in waters near the Paracel Islands– which both China and Vietnam claim. It explained the sinking as a “provocation” in the middle of a global crisis around the COVID-19 break out.

China declares it has historic rights to much of the South China Sea, in spite of clashing claims by other federal governments in the area. Chinese vessels wandered off into Scarborough Shoal location in 2012, leading to a diplomatic rift in between Manila and Beijing.

The list below year, Manila submitted its arbitration case versus China, arguing the triangular shoal in the South China Sea had actually long been a fishing ground for Filipinos and was well within the Philippine special financial zone. Rather of pressing to implement the 2016 decision, Duterte, who took office that year, picked to calm China in the hopes of drawing Chinese financial investment and trade.

The CCG ship that has actually simply released there, the 3302, is a Zhaoyu-class patrol vessel imitated the Chinese Type 056 warship. It was last seen because location in November and displaced a Filipino-crewed vessel, Rappler reported at the time.

The 3302 weighs approximately 3,500 heaps and is geared up with a helicopter deck and a 30- mm weapon– it’s created to be an ocean-going ship, as opposed to patrolling China’s coasts.

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