CCG ship spotted near Manila Bay leaves due to Emong — monitor

A screengrab from Sealight, a program of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, shows Chinese Coast Guard vessel 3304 seen 50 nautical miles away from the Luzon coast on Wednesday. — Photo from Sealight

MANILA, Philippines — A Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) ship, spotted near Manila Bay in the West Philippine Sea, left the area due to Typhoon Emong (international name Co-may), a maritime expert said on Thursday.

READ: Emong intensifies into a typhoon

Maritime expert Ray Powell told Inquirer that the CCG ship with hull number 3304 left the area on Wednesday night, after its move which he classified as “intrusive patrol” began on Monday.

At one point, the ship was spotted just 50 nautical miles away from the Luzon coast.

Such “intrusive patrols,” Powell said, was made to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claim in the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, which the landmark 2016 arbitral award effectively invalidated in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights.

Manila has sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea and is entitled to conduct economic activities in the waters part of its exclusive economic zone, but other nations are still entitled to freedom of navigation and overflight there.

Meanwhile, Powell said it is still unclear if CCG-3304 will return all the way to the ports in the Chinese mainland.

The CCG-3304 was patrolling around Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal before arriving near Manila Bay on Monday, July 21.

Powell also said China appears to temporarily suspend its “exclusion zone enforcement” in Panatag Shoal due to Emong.

Photos posted by Powell on X (formerly Twitter) appeared that the two CCG ships started to depart from the shoal’s vicinity.

In 2012, China began to have effective control of Panatag Shoal after its stand-off with Manila. Since then, at least two CCG ships have been stationed outside the lagoon at any given time, according to local authorities, barring Filipino fisherfolk to come close.

CCG’s so-called “exclusion zone enforcement” outright flouts the 2016 arbitral ruling, which declared the area as a traditional fishing ground of the Philippines, China and Vietnam.

Powell said the CCG ships are expected to return there when weather conditions get better.

“We can expect the China Coast Guard & militia ships to return to Scarborough Shoal to resume their exclusion zone enforcement against the Philippines after Typhoon Co-may turns back to the northeast,” Powell, program head of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Emong intensified into a typhoon at 8 a.m. on Thursday, packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph. /das