00:00 China is behaving like a schoolyard bully towards smaller countries,
00:04 the Philippine Defense Secretary told CNN Friday during an exclusive interview in which he warned
00:10 his nation - and the wider world - had to stand up to Beijing's territorial expansion in the South
00:16 China Sea. "I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this," said Philippine Secretary
00:23 of National Defense Gilberto Tayadoro Jr. "It's not the question of stealing your lunch money,
00:29 but it's really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair, and even enrollment in school."
00:35 His comments follow increasingly assertive moves by the Philippines to protect its claim to shoals
00:42 in the South China Sea during more than a month of high-stakes maritime drama.
00:46 While tensions between China and the Philippines over the highly contested and strategic waterway
00:52 have festered for years, confrontations have spiked this summer, renewing regional fears
00:58 that a mistake or miscalculation at sea could trigger a wider conflict, including with the
01:04 United States. The region is widely seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflagration
01:11 and the recent confrontations have raised concerns among Western observers of potentially
01:16 developing into an international incident if China, a global power, decides to act more
01:23 forcefully against the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally. Recent incidents have involved
01:29 stant offs between China's Coast Guard, what Manila says are shadowy Chinese maritime
01:35 militia boats and tiny wooden Philippine fishing vessels, Chinese water cannons blocking the
01:41 resupply of a shipwrecked Philippine military outpost, and a lone Filipino diver cutting
01:47 through a floating Chinese barrier. Teodoro characterized the Philippines' refusal to back
01:53 down in the waters within its 200-nautical-mile-exclusive economic zone as a fight for
01:59 the very existence of the Philippines. "We're fighting for our fisherfolk, we're fighting for
02:05 our resources. We're fighting for our integrity as an archipelagic state. Our existence as the
02:12 Republic of the Philippines is vital to this fight," Teodoro said in a sit-down interview
02:18 at the Department of National Defense in Manila. "It's not for us, it's for the future generations
02:24 too. And if we don't stop, China is going to creep and creep into what is within our sovereign
02:31 jurisdiction, our sovereign rights and within our territory," he said, adding that Beijing won't
02:37 stop until it controls the whole South China Sea. Beijing says it is safeguarding its sovereignty
02:44 and maritime interests in the South China Sea and warned the Philippines this week not to make
02:49 provocations or seek troubles. It accused Philippine fishing and coast guard vessels of illegal entry
02:56 into the area. China claims indisputable sovereignty over almost all 1.3 million
03:03 square miles of the South China Sea and most of the islands and sandbars within it,
03:09 including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China.
03:13 Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.
03:20 Over the past two decades China has occupied a number of reefs and atolls across the South China
03:28 Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports, which the Philippines says
03:35 challenges its sovereignty and fishing rights as well as endangering marine biodiversity in
03:40 the resource-rich waterway. In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled
03:47 in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China
03:52 has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
03:58 But Beijing has ignored the decision and continues to expand its presence in the waterway.
04:03 What's at Stake? In his first sit-down TV interview with an international news outlet
04:10 since he took the position in June, Taodoro was keen to stress whatever happens in the
04:16 South China Sea impacts the globe. Crucially, the waterway is vital to international trade
04:22 with trillions of dollars in global shipping passing through it each year.
04:27 It's also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend,
04:33 and beneath the waves lie huge reserves of natural gas and oil that competing claimants are vying for.
04:39 With nations already suffering from inflation brought about by Russia's war in Ukraine,
04:46 there are concerns that any slowdown in travel and transporting of goods in the South China Sea
04:51 would result in significant impact to the global economy. "It will choke one of the most vital
04:58 supply chain waterways in the whole world, it will choke international trade, and it will subject the
05:04 world economy, particularly in supply chains, to their whim," Taodoro said, adding that if this
05:10 were to happen, the whole world will react. The defense secretary warned that smaller nations,
05:17 including regional partners, rely on international law for their survival.
05:22 Though they need China, they need Russia, they see that they too may become a victim of bullying.
05:28 If they, China, close off the South China Sea, perhaps the next target may be the Straits of
05:36 Malacca and then the Indian Ocean, Taodoro said. Risk of conflict
05:42 Only a few years ago the Philippines was treading a much more cautious path
05:47 with its huge neighbor China. But since taking office last year,
05:52 Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has taken a stronger stance over the South
05:58 China Sea than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. On Friday, he defended the Philippine Coast
06:05 Guard's removal earlier this week of a floating barrier installed by China in the southeast
06:10 portion of Bajo Dimasinlok, also known as the Scarborough Shoal. A disputed area, the shoal
06:18 a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 130 miles (200 kilometers) west of the
06:25 Philippine island of Luzon. Marcos said his administration will not allow foreign entities
06:32 to put up a barrier that is within the Philippines, according to the official Philippine news agency,
06:38 PNA. "We are not looking for trouble. What we will do is continue defending the Philippines,
06:45 the maritime territory of the Philippines, the rights of our fishermen who have been fishing
06:50 there for hundreds of years," Marcos said in an interview, while visiting the island of Siargao.
06:56 "We avoid trouble, we avoid heated exchange, but our defense of Philippine territory is strong,"
07:03 Marcos added, according to PNA. Marcos has also strengthened US relations that had frayed under
07:11 Duterte, with the two allies touting increased cooperation and joint patrols in the South China
07:17 Sea in the future. In April, the Philippines identified the locations of four new military
07:24 bases the US will gain access to, as part of an expanded defense agreement analysts say
07:30 is aimed at combating China. Washington has condemned Beijing's recent actions in the
07:36 contested sea and threatened to intervene under its mutual defense treaty obligations
07:42 if Philippine vessels came under armed attack there. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
07:48 Lindsay Ford reiterated Washington's commitment to the mutual defense treaty in testimony before a
07:54 US House subcommittee on Tuesday. She said the treaty covers not only the Philippine armed forces,
08:02 but also its Coast Guard and civilian vessels and aircraft.
08:05 "We have said repeatedly and continue to say that we stand by those commitments absolutely,"
08:12 Ford said. Defense Secretary Ted Oro has concerns about a possible escalation because of the
08:19 dangerous and reckless maneuvering of Chinese vessels, but he was clear that any incident,
08:24 accidental or otherwise, the blame would lie with China squarely on their shoulders.
08:30 And he called global powers to help pressure Beijing over its moves in the South China Sea.
08:36 "Peace and stability in that one place in the world will generate some relief and comfort
08:42 to everyone," he said. As part of the Marcos administration's commitment to boost the
08:48 Philippines' defense and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea,
08:52 Ted Oro said further air and naval assets have been ordered.
08:56 "There will be more patrol craft coming in, more rotary aircraft and we are studying the
09:02 possibility to acquiring multi-role fighters," he said, adding that would make a difference in
09:08 our air defense capabilities. Preferring cooler heads to prevail, Ted Oro said that diplomacy
09:15 would provide a way forward providing Chinese leader Xi Jinping complies with international law.
09:21 "Filipinos I believe are always willing to talk, just as long that talk does not mean whispers in
09:28 a back room, or shouting at each other, meaning to say there must be substantial talks, open,
09:34 transparent and on a rules-based basis," he said, while also adding that talks cannot be used as a
09:41 delaying tactic by Beijing. The Philippines, he said, has no choice but to stand up to China
09:48 because otherwise we lose our identity and integrity as a nation. But conflict, he added,
09:55 was not the answer or desired outcome. Standing up doesn't maya.
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