Beijing opens maritime rescue center at Kagitingan Reef

FILE: Fiery Cross Reef (Photo: Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative)

China has put up a maritime rescue center at Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef in the West Philippines Sea on Tuesday, January 29,  according to Chinese state-run Xinhua.

Quoting Beijing’s Ministry of Transport, the report stated that the maritime rescue center “will offer better support to maritime rescue operations in the southern part of the South China Sea.”

Xinhua also said the ministry, On July 27, 2018, sent a rescue ship to Zamora (Subi) Reef which was used for emergency response operations. It was boarded by eight to 10 rescuers with diving equipment.

China replaced the first rescue ship it deployed with another vessel in October.

“Over the past six months, the two ships have rescued 16 people and two ships in eight operations. Property worth about 12 million yuan (1.

7 million U.S. dollars) has been salvaged,” Xinhua said in its report.

Earlier this month, the Chinese news outfit reported that Beijing installed facilities in Kagitingan Reef, Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, and Zamora Reef to protect and restore coral reefs in those areas.

Citing China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Xinhua said these facilities are “key to the ecological security of the Nansha (Spratly) Islands and the whole South China Sea region.”

“They will lead to better understanding of the coral reef ecosystem of the Nansha Islands and tailored conservation and rehabilitation measures,” the ministry was quoted as saying.

Reacting to this, Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano had said China’s coral reef rehabilitation was “laudable,” however, he still urged the Philippine government to monitor it as “there is an existing territorial conflict.

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“Dapat makialam ang gobyerno natin sa proyektong ito dahil isa tayo sa claimants ng mga teritoryo sa South China Sea (The government should intervene in this project because we are one of the claimants of the territories in the South China Sea),” he said.

“This rehab project could be just one of the many ways of China’s occupation,” he added.

Prior to this, China reportedly placed weather monitoring stations on the three reefs which, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, enable China to “better provide public services to nations across the South China Sea.”