By Hu Bo
The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines recently stated that the Philippines and Canada signed a cooperation agreement in Ottawa last week. According to this agreement, the Philippines' National Coastal Surveillance Center will have access to data from Canada's Dark Vessel Detection System. This system, equipped with sensors like satellite-borne radar, claims the ability to monitor and identify ships that have turned off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers.
While the Philippines claims that introducing the system is aimed at enhancing its own maritime situational awareness and tracking illegal fishing with no specific targeting of any country or object, it is quite obvious that the Philippines hopes that the system will contribute to what it calls "countering China's expansion in the West Philippine Sea".
This is another attempt by the Philippines to seek foreign assistance in the South China Sea against China. Since the beginning of this year, the Philippine government has launched multiple attacks in the so-called "West Philippine Sea", causing frequent disturbances in Huangyan Dao (Island), Ren'ai Jiao (Reef), and Niu'e Jiao (Reef). Simultaneously, they have been extensively exaggerating and hyping their plight on the international stage. Building upon this narrative, the Philippines is actively searching for allies and support worldwide, strengthening diplomatic and military interactions with countries such as the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, the UK, and France. They seek diplomatic support while pursuing equipment and technical cooperation.
It is not an exaggeration to say that nearly all of the Philippines' diplomacy and foreign cooperation in the past six months have revolved around the so-called "West Philippine Sea" and countering China. Additionally, the adoption of Canada's system is closely related to previous accusations made by the Philippine coastal police and armed forces that "some Chinese fishing boats and coastguard ships have deliberately turned off AIS receivers".
In fact, the Philippine government has been fighting against a non-existent threat, similar to Don Quixote's battle against windmills. For long, China has advocated the idea of pursuing joint development while shelving disputes. Over the years, with the joint efforts of China and ASEAN, the overall situation in the South China Sea has achieved stability. Currently, the Philippines is determined to change the status quo in both Ren'ai Jiao and Huangyan Dao. With China's strength and capability, if it truly intends to target the Philippines, the strongholds occupied by the Philippines in the South China Sea have long disappeared.
Of course, even if the Philippine authorities understand this logic, they will not let go, because accusing China is meant to provide an excuse for the Philippines' expansion in the South China Sea. The Philippines thinks it has the backing of the western countries, so it has no scruples and says what it wants.
From Canada's assistance to the Philippines in combating so-called illegal fishing in the South China Sea, to the Quad between the US, Japan, India and Australia which focused cooperation on combating illegal fishing, they all follow the same path, that is, to use the so-called information transparency to curb China's lawful and reasonable maritime presence and activities.
Against this backdrop, however, this Philippine-Canadian cooperation agreement will hardly have a clear practical effect, but will do more to create big news and serve to increase tensions.
On the one hand, the Dark Vessel Detection System is not as amazing as it is boasted. The use of satellites to identify small targets such as fishing vessels is still in the stage of technical exploration, especially in the Nansha sea area where there are complex controversies, intertwined forces, and fishery activities. Any single technology and means will be insufficient. Previously, some think tanks and news organizations in the US and other countries were frequently misled by certain technical data and made a big joke.
On the other hand, the Philippines has limited capabilities when it comes to recognizing and integrating information. Under the influence of the so-called "China threat", it is extremely susceptible to being misled by false data, leading to overreactions and the occurrence of diplomatic or on-site crises. Nowadays, relevant Philippine agencies are overly suspicious. Whenever China carries out any economic, law enforcement and military activities in waters of Nansha Qundao (Islands), the Philippines will accuse it of "coercion" or "insecurity". And whenever anything happens in the South China Sea, whether it concerns China or not, the Philippines will also take it for granted that it is China's problem.
In the South China Sea, we welcome information transparency initiatives and efforts that are unbiased and objective. However, self-interested and distorted information transparency will only yield opposite outcomes. Therefore, I hope that the cooperation between the Philippines and Canada will stay true to the basic facts and that they don't fall into the wrong path.
(The writer Hu Bo is the director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, SCSPI)
Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
