China assault on Malaysia sovereignty draws parallels to PH ordeal

LUCONIA BREAKERS composite images from Inquirer files

MANILA, Philippines—Less than 100 miles off the coast of Sarawak, Luconia Breakers is considered as the only feature visible even when there is high tide in Luconia Shoals, but over the years, the sandbar, which is close to where Malaysia is exploring oil and gas reserves, appeared to grow bigger.

A report published by The Asan Forum of the think tank Asan Institute for Policy Studies said that almost all of Luconia Shoals, a reef complex, is submerged, except for Luconia Breakers, which, based on a previous survey published in the 1990s, was the only feature there to “dry,” or a feature that is partially exposed at low tide.

However, it became permanently above water, even when it is high tide.

Back in 2009, Chinese media visited Luconia Breakers and said it may be China’s “southernmost territory,” according to one of the issues of the Chinese National Geography and stressed in the report “Luconia Breakers: China’s new ‘southernmost territory’ in the South China Sea?” that was written by a senior lecturer of international relations, Andrew Chubb.

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Even so, Scott Bentley of the Australian Defense Force Academy pointed out in the report published by The Asan Forum that “evidence suggests that Luconia Breakers was likely reclaimed into an artificial island sometime before 2009” and that it was already visible at high tide.

Who reclaimed it?

Bently said there were no reports of any regular Chinese presence in Luconia Shoals before 2012, or even 2013, when China was said to have “seized” the reef complex from Malaysia, so it seemed impossible that the reclamation has been carried out by China, especially considering that Malaysia said the feature is not contested.

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan/INQUIRER.net

Was it the force of nature then? No one’s certain, but in 2013, a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel anchored on Luconia Shoals. This was condemned by Malaysia as “intrusion.” Since then, CCG vessels have kept a constant presence in the reef complex, which is one of the largest reef formations in the South China Sea and is considered to be rich in oil and gas reserves.

‘Signaling sovereignty’

As pointed out by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), CCG vessels maintained an almost constant presence in Luconia Shoals, saying that it is a reflection of China’s “determination to establish control throughout the nine-dash line,” which has already been declared baseless and illegal.

This was met with condemnation from Malaysia, which said it would take “diplomatic action.”

But like how China has been disregarding the over 500 diplomatic protests filed by the Philippines for its aggressive intrusion in the West Philippine Sea, where China constructed several artificial islands, Malaysia’s resistance to China’s infringement of its sovereignty seemed to have been brushed aside.

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AMTI cited data from an identification system called AIS that CCG vessels have been in Luconia Shoals for 279 days in 2020; 316 days in 2022; 338 days in 2023; and 359 days in 2024 despite the feature being 1,200 miles away from Hainan Island in China.

It said China kept daily patrols at key locations across the South China Sea in 2024 and has persisted in using the proximity of its island bases and size of its CCG fleet to monitor and challenge the activities of other countries within its nine, now 10-dash line, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Bigger island

But as China maintained a constant presence, Luconia Breakers grew, as seen in satellite images obtained by INQUIRER.net from US-based provider Apollo Mapping, compared to its size of only 100 meters long and 40 meters wide when the sea level is 30 centimeters below “mean sea level” in 2014.

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan/INQUIRER.net

For Chester Cabalza, president of the think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, Luconia Shoals “show a massive man-made transformation from 2011 to 2024,” considering that the satellite images were from those years. “Dredging and possibly an underwater mapping were taken off Sarawak in Malaysia.”

Who made it?

Nothing is certain yet, but if it was Malaysia, there would have been a clear resistance from China, especially since Malaysia’s oil and gas exploration activities have not been invisible to China, which sent a diplomatic protest to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing last year to condemn an “infringement of its sovereignty.”

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Even in the Philippines, the “rotation and reprovisioning” of the military in Ayungin, or Second Thomas Shoal, have been met with intimidation from the CCG, which has attacked vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard with military-grade lasers, water cannons, dangerous maneuvers, collisions, and even bolos.

China’s advantage

As pointed out by former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, before 2013, “China faced what it called the ‘Malacca Dilemma’” since 80 percent of its petroleum imports had to pass through the Malacca Strait, which led then President Hu Jintao to complain how some countries were bent on controlling the channel.

So China resolved the problem in two ways.

Carpio stated in his book “The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea” that first, China built oil and gas pipelines from the coast of Myanmar to Kunming in China’s Yunan Province to reduce to 50 percent China’s petroleum imports that pass through the Malacca Strait.

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Second, “China built in 2014 to 2015 an airbase with a seaport in Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratlys for the dual purpose of enforcing the nine-dash line as China’s national boundary and protecting China’s petroleum imports that still pass through the Malacca Strait,” Carpio stressed.

But because Luconia Shoals is a lot closer to the Malacca Strait than Fiery Cross, or Kagitingan Reef, he had said it will most likely be reclaimed and developed by China into an “air-and-naval base” that will “more effectively protect China’s petroleum imports that pass through the channel.

Does China listen?

AMTI stated that China already has 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratlys, but in a bid to legitimize all of these, China is believed to be taking a grip of strategic features in the South China Sea, as well, including the Luconia Shoals, which has a sandbar that is exposed even during high tide.

As Carpio stated, “the creeping, eastward expansion of China’s military outposts towards the nine-dash line will allow China to enforce” the line as its “national boundary in the South China Sea,” which would eventually enable it to have control over all of the resources in the area.

If Luconia Breakers was a low tide elevation and has only been reclaimed, Bentley explained that China has no legal basis to assert sovereignty over the feature as the right to “reclaim” or “create artificial islands” belongs to Malaysia as it is the state with the continental shelf where the feature lies.

But when did China listen?

As Carpio pointed out, Mischief, or Panganiban Reef, which is also a low tide elevation, was seized from the Philippines, with China eventually creating a 590-hectare artificial island on it despite the feature being well-within the continental shelf of the Philippines, which, based on international law, is the only country with the right to exploit resources in the feature.