China’s ‘monster ship’ off Sabina Shoal on ‘dark mode’

THE MONSTER Filipino coast guardsmen aboard BRP Teresa Magbanua catch a glimpse of the largest China Coast Guard ship 5901 from a porthole at Escoda (Sabina) Shoal on July 3. —Photo from PCG

MANILA, Philippines — China Coast Guard’s (CCG) “monster ship” deployed off Escoda (Sabina) Shoal has been in “dark mode” since last week, according to a West Philippine Sea monitor.

SeaLight Director Ray Powell said CCG ship with hull number 5901 turned off its Automatic Identification System last July 31.

When asked as to why the ship turns off its AIS, Powell told INQUIRER.net over X: “Hard to say. It does go dark from time to time.”

READ: Chinese survey ship conducts unauthorized patrols in Escoda Shoal

“[It] probably wants to be harder to spot, but of course the PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) can see it every day from Teresa Magbanua,” Powell, program head of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation which monitors Chinese vessels activity in South China Sea, said of the flagship PCG vessel deployed there for several months.

“Maybe it just doesn’t want people like me to report on its movements publicly,” Powell further said, while noting that it remains traceable using other tools like radar, dark vessel detection, overhead satellite, albeit “definitely harder.”

READ: West Philippine Sea: China ‘monster ship’ inches closer to PCG vessel

The enormous vessel has been in the area since July 3 and is still there as of Tuesday, according to Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea.

A Chinese survey ship also conducted “zigzag” and unauthorized patrols and is about 20 nautical miles away from Escoda Shoal as of Tuesday, according to Trinidad.

Beijing’s deployment there comes as Manila maintains a persistent presence in Sabina Shoal.

BRP Teresa Magbanua has been deployed in Sabina Shoal since April 16 to become the longest-deployed PCG asset in the West Philippine Sea following suspected reclamation activities around the shoal.

Manila is holding the line in the West Philippine Sea as Beijing asserts sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the exclusive economic zone of the country’s western section, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by the arbitral award issued in July 2016.

The landmark ruling stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013, or a year after its tense standoff with Beijing over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, whose lagoon the latter now has an effective control of.