West PH Sea sees return of Chinese ‘monster ship’ after almost a year

MANILA, Philippines — The West Philippine Sea saw the presence of the world’s largest coast guard cutter belonging to China for the first time in nearly a year.

The China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel with hull number 5901 is 165 meters long and 22 meters wide—roughly one and a half times the length of a standard football field—and weighs about 12,000 tons.

Maritime monitor SeaLight said the CCG ship, better known as the “monster ship,” passed around 40 nautical miles off Itbayat town, Batanes, on Sunday.

Before its passage off Batanes, CCG 5901 conducted an intrusive patrol off central Vietnam, marking its first deployment south of Hainan Island since July 2025.

“It spent just a brief time off Batanes before turning back west,” SeaLight director Ray Powell told Inquirer on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, CCG 5901 was already “nearly” back at Hainan Island, according to Powell.

This marked the first appearance of the “monster ship” since it was last spotted off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in February last year.

READ: ‘Monster ship’ still in WPS as PH patrols with US, Japan, Australia

Powell said: “2025 was a quiet year for the Monster.”

“It seems to have spent most of its time near the Chinese coastline,” he added.

This contrasted with its activity in 2024, when the “monster ship” was observed following a route resembling China’s 10-dash line.

READ: China patrols show 10-dash line push in West Philippine Sea, SCS

Doubling down on its sweeping claims in the South China Sea, the country added a 10th dash covering the eastern section of Taiwan in 2023.

The then-nine dash line, which encroaches upon the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, and even Taiwan, has already been effectively invalidated by the 2016 Arbitral Award.

It was Manila that lodged a complaint before an international tribunal to challenge this sweeping claim in 2013, or a year after its tense standoff over Panatag Shoal, an area inside the country’s EEZ which Beijing now has effective control of. /jpv