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Zhenhua Lu

A formal agreement on fishing rights in the South China Sea would help ease tensions between Beijing and Manila, but reaching one without sparking a public outcry in either China or the Philippines might be easier said than done, according to observers.
The problem, they say, is that negotiators will find it almost impossible to agree such a deal without reinforcing or supporting the two sides’ respective, but unresolved, territorial claims.
Zhang Mingliang, an associate professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou who specialises in South China Sea studies, said that reaching a joint fishing agreement was “definitely the ideal solution”.
“But both sides face enormous [domestic] opposition to doing so … because it means that you are allowing the other side to fish in the waters you have clearly claimed, which might be unconstitutional and spark a public outcry.”

The debate comes ahead of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address on Monday, during which he is expected to announce a plan to allow Chinese vessels to fish in waters claimed by Manila.
Duterte made a verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016 that allowed the two nations access to fishing areas in each other’s controlled waters.
Protests mark anniversary of Manila’s South China Sea legal victory
The so called consultation mechanism – agreed after Duterte’s visit to Beijing in 2016 – had helped to ease tensions between the two sides on a range of South China Sea issues, including rights to fishing, and oil and gas exploration, Zhang said.
However, a report by news website Rappler.com quoted Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio as saying on July 12 that if Duterte did allow China to fish in Philippine waters it would leave Manila with a “lopsided” deal.
The president’s statement on Monday was likely to be the “final confirmation that that verbal agreement [between Duterte and Xi] is now a legally binding agreement between the Philippines and China”, Carpio said.
“We are badly on the losing end of that agreement because we are opening the entire West Philippine Sea to China’s fishing fleet … It’s lopsided,” he said.




Duterte said on Wednesday, however, that Manila’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea were not in question and that allowing China to fish in the country’s exclusive economic zone would not affect that.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the owner and I’m just giving the fishing rights,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted him as saying during a television show.
Duterte backflips on Chinese fishing in Philippine waters
Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based military analyst, said Duterte might be deliberately using the offer of fishing rights in “Philippine waters” as a way to show his diplomatic success in establishing the fact that the area does actually belong to Manila.
But an executive order from Duterte would not be enough to reduce tensions caused by fishing disputes, he said.
“It’s better for Beijing and Manila to reach an agreement to legalise their fishing rights, and in particular to identify their joint fishing zones.”

Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said he expected Duterte’s critics to be out in force both before and after he made his State of the Nation Address.
He said they were likely to “denounce the move as unconstitutional because there is no written agreement”.
Also, as Beijing had been quiet on the issue since Duterte’s remarks, any statement he made on Monday was likely to be met with confusion in both China and the Philippines, he said.
China’s foreign ministry has yet to respond to requests for comment on the issue.

Beijing and Manila have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, which include the areas around Scarborough Shoal, Reed Bank and Thitu Island in the Spratly Island chain.
Last month, tensions flared when a Chinese fishing boat crashed into and sank a smaller Philippine vessel that had been anchored near Reed Bank.
The two sides also became embroiled in a diplomatic stand-off in April after about 275 Chinese vessels, including fishing boats, gathered near the Philippine-occupied Thitu Island.


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South China Sea

China and Philippines need a fishing deal for the South China Sea, but can they find one?

Tensions between Beijing and Manila are running high over disputes in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this April 21, 2017 file photo, engineers from NAMRIA, the central mapping agency of the Philippine Government, survey the area around the Philippine-claimed Thitu Island with a sandbar sitting on the horizon off the disputed South China Sea in the western Philippines. An official says the Philippines has protested the presence of about 275 Chinese vessels that were sighted from January to March near a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

epa07653878 A handout photo made available by Arlinda dela Torre through the Department of Agriculture on 17 June 2019 shows the damaged Philippine fishing vessel F/B Gem-Ver at the shore of San Jose town, Occidental Mindoro province, Philippines. Philippine authorities continue to investigate a collision incident involving a Chinese vessel and the F/B Gem-Ver in the waters of the Reed Bank on 09 June, as the Filipino fishermen claim that the Chinese vessel rammed their boat. A Vietnamese boat later rescued the Filipinos at sea. EPA-EFE/HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES/BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 25, 2019, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before their meeting at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on June 17, urged for calm following public outrage over the alleged sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the disputed South China Sea, calling it "just a collision". (Photo by Kenzaburo FUKUHARA / POOL / AFP)

Duterte slams critics as he invokes Philippine-US defence pact over South China Sea dispute

An activist protests against the alleged sinking of a Philippine fishing boat by a Chinese vessel at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila. Photo: EPA-EFE

FILE - In this June 17, 2019, file photo made available by the Malacanang Presidential Photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his speech during the 121st Philippine Navy Anniversary at Sangley point, Cavite province, Philippines. Duterte is "seriously considering" cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland, which spearheaded a resolution that asked the U.N.'s top human rights body to look into the thousands of deaths of suspects under his anti-drug crackdown. (Robinson Ninal Jr./Malacanang Presidential Photo via AP, File)

In this undated June 2019 handout photo provided Arlinda dela Torre via the Department of Agriculture, the damaged Filipino fishing boat F/B Gimver 1 lies on the shores at San Jose, Occidental Mindoro province, Philippines. China recently acknowledged its fishing vessel hit a Filipino boat in the disputed South China Sea in an incident that prompted an outcry in the Philippines but denies the collision was intentional. The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest after Filipino fishermen said a Chinese vessel rammed their anchored boat on Sunday night then abandoned them as the boat sank in the Reed Bank. (Department of Agriculture via AP)

Duterte-Xi deal on China fishing in Philippine waters ‘not enforceable’: foreign secretary Locsin

Demonstrators in Manila hold an anti-China protest after a collision between a Philippine and Chinese vessel in the South China Sea. Photo: AP

Teodoro Locsin, the Philippines' secretary of foreign affairs, poses for a photograph in Manila, the Philippines, on Thursday, May 16, 2019. The U.S. is projecting "strategic confusion" in the South China Sea, Locsin said, prompting the Southeast Asian nation to deepen its ties with China. Photographer: Carlo Gabuco/Bloomberg

Philippines lodges diplomatic protest with Beijing over South China Sea ‘hit and run’ that sunk fishing vessel

Activists burn a mock Chinese flag with a map of the South China Sea during a protest in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this April 25, 2019, file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, before their meeting at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. Duterte raised his nation's concerns over territorial disputes in the South China Sea at a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing that followed the signing of multi-billion dollar trade agreements. (Kenzaburo Fukuhara/Pool Photo via AP)

epa07619369 Philippines Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana looks on during the fifth plenary session of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) 18th Asia Security Summit in Singapore, 02 June 2019. The IISS Asia Security Summit is an annual gathering of defense officials in the Asia-Pacific region and is dubbed the Shangri-La Dialogue in honor of the hotel where the event is held. The summit will be held from 31 May to 02 June 2019. EPA-EFE/WALLACE WOON

Anti-China protests in the Philippines mark third anniversary of Manila’s South China Sea legal victory

A June 18 protest in Manila against the alleged sinking of a Philippine fishing boat by a Chinese vessel. Photo: EPA

FILE - In this April 19, 2018, file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses troops during the turnover-of-command ceremony for the new chief of the Philippine National Police General Oscar Albayalde succeeding General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa at Camp Crame in suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines. Elections officials were to proclaim the winners Wednesday, May 22, 2019, after finishing the official count of the May 13 elections overnight. The tally had been delayed by glitches in automated counting machines.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

News

China

Diplomacy

President Rodrigo Duterte set to make a key announcement on fishing rights during State of the Nation Address on Monday
But can either side afford to give ground without sparking a public outcry at home?


President Rodrigo Duterte set to make a key announcement on fishing rights during State of the Nation Address on Monday.


Rodrigo Duterte

The Philippines

China and Philippines need a fishing deal for the South China Sea, but can they find one?

President Rodrigo Duterte set to make a key announcement on fishing rights during State of the Nation Address on Monday But can either side afford to give ground without sparking a public outcry at home?

President Rodrigo Duterte set to make a key announcement on fishing rights during State of the Nation Address on Monday

But can either side afford to give ground without sparking a public outcry at home?