West PH Sea: China research vessel leaves Panatag; drone mothership remains

Screengrab from Sealight

MANILA, Philippines — One of the Chinese research ships off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal has left the area, while a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel continues to patrol outside the shoal’s “exclusion zone,” a West Philippine Sea monitor said on Thursday.

SeaLight director Ray Powell told the Inquirer that Xiang Yang Hong 10 began departing Panatag on Thursday and is now about 100 nautical miles (NM) away from the shoal.

However, Powell noted that the ship has moved west of the shoal, “not towards China.”

READ: 2 Chinese research ships now at Scarborough days after collision

“It’s hard to say why it left since I don’t really know why it was there in the first place,” Powell, program head of the Stanford University project, said in a post on X. “But the drone mothership is still there.”

The autonomous mothership Zhu Hai Yun, which arrived on Monday, remains at the shoal.

The deployments followed the Aug. 11 collision between a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) warship and a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel during a botched attempt to obstruct a PCG mission for Filipino fisherfolk.

A 157-meter PLA-N warship, hull number 164, joined the blocking operations against BRP Suluan, resulting in a collision with China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 3104.

Both Chinese ships were damaged; CCG-3104’s forecastle was crushed, and four of its crew were thrown overboard. BRP Suluan, however, evaded the maneuver.

READ: Chinese ships collide off Scarborough Shoal; PH Coast Guard offers aid

On Aug. 12, Powell said Chinese ships were seen in a “parallel-sweep” track, indicative of a search and rescue (SAR) operation. He has previously ruled out that Xiang Yang Hong 10 and Zhu Hai Yun were deployed for SAR.

Aside from Zhu Hai Yun, six CCG ships and six maritime militia vessels remained within the 25-30 NM “exclusion zone” off the shoal as of Thursday, according to him.

On the other hand, Powell said PCG’s BRP Cape San Agustin is patrolling outside the shoal’s “exclusion zone.”

“There is not currently a CCG ship that I can see shadowing the BRP Cape San Agustin,” Powell said.

China’s actions reflect what Powell terms “exclusion zone enforcement” around the atoll, flouting the 2016 arbitral ruling that recognized the area as a traditional fishing ground for the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, but the landmark 2016 Arbitral Award rejected those claims in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights. /dl/abc