Filipino forces and villagers struggle to live in China's shadow in disputed waters
'This is just so beautiful,' Philippines military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said of West York Island, one of nine islands, reefs and atolls occupied by Filipino forces in the long-contested waters. 'This solidifies our resolve to fight for this place whatever happens.'
The 18.6-hectare (46-acre) droplet-shaped island, called Likas by Filipinos, could easily become an eco-tourism draw in tropical Asia with its powdery white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and giant sea turtle sanctuaries. Padilla expressed hope it could someday be opened to Filipino travelers and tourists from across the world.
But that longstanding aspiration by Philippine officials has been stymied by a tangle of territorial conflicts involving a militarily superior China.
Beijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil. It has increasingly flexed its military might, including its navy — the largest in the world — to strengthen its grip on a strategic waterway it says it has owned since ancient times.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan contest China's expansive claims with their own, and the territorial stand-offs have increasingly flared into cat-and-mouse confrontations at sea in recent years.
The long-simmering disputes are also a delicate fault line in the regional rivalry between Beijing and Washington.
Both former President Joe Biden and his successor, Donald Trump, have condemned China's growing aggression in the contested waters, including its coast guard's use of powerful water cannons, blinding military-grade lasers and dangerous sea maneuvers against the coast guard and navy of the Philippines, Washington's oldest treaty ally in Asia.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in mid-2022, the Philippines has intensified a campaign to expose China's increasingly assertive actions by capturing them in video and photographs. The images have then been made public in the hope that international pressure would prompt Beijing to back down to avoid damage to its reputation.
The Philippine military invited a small group of journalists, including two from The Associated Press, in a dayslong naval patrol of the South China Sea territories claimed by Manila and on visits to navy and marine forces deployed to guard them.
During the patrol, which ended over the weekend, the BRP Andres Bonifacio navy ship carrying the journalists warned a number of Chinese coast guard ships and suspected Chinese militia vessels by two-way radio to move away from Philippines-claimed waters. The Chinese ships responded by asserting their sovereignty in the offshore region without undertaking any provocative actions.
On West York Island, two Filipino marines in camouflage uniforms stood guard with M4 assault rifles under a Philippine flag. One used binoculars to scan the surrounding waters for Chinese or Vietnamese ships passing by from a distance.
One of the farthest islands in the disputed waters from the nearest Philippine province of Palawan, West York is a difficult and risky post, where Filipino forces see nothing beyond the small island but sea. Military personnel can occasionally call their loved ones during their two-month deployment, but the internet connection is spotty, especially during the typhoon season that starts in June, according to military personnel on the island.
They grow eggplants, okra and chili peppers and raise goats and chickens to augment food provisions delivered by navy ships from Palawan. There is a makeshift basketball court to help while away off-duty time and ease the feeling of isolation.
'It's being away from your family,' Padilla said. 'At the end of the day, you go home to an empty room.'
Marine Col. Joel Bonavente, who was among the visiting military officials, told AP that military personnel posted in the remote outpost get additional pay to compensate for the "hazard and loneliness.'
On Thitu, the largest Philippines-claimed island, which lies west of West York, civilians have thrived for decades in a small fishing village alongside the military forces.
An AP journalist who visited Thitu several years ago saw an island with only a few low-slung wooden and concrete buildings and a gravel airstrip that was being eroded by the constant pounding of waves. There were a few shanties mainlanders had moved to from Palawan in exchange for a monthly government provision of groceries, rice and cash in a bid to grow a civilian community.
Dramatic infrastructure improvements have occurred through the years on the 37.2-hectare (92-acre) island, which now has a concrete runway, a huge aircraft hangar, a wharf, a storm shelter and concrete roads running through the fishing village, military encampments and a three-story coast guard surveillance center.
A high school building is nearly finished near a seawater desalination facility.
'I want to stay on this island because my blood pressure remains stable without the wide selection of fatty food you find in the city like hamburgers,' said Nenita Bania, a 59-year-old villager who has lived with her husband on Thitu for 12 years.
'Lonely? Not really. It's not the case if you're with family,' she told the AP aboard an air force C-130 aircraft, as she and other villagers hitched a ride back to Thitu from Palawan province.
Living in China's shadow in the disputed waters, however, has been challenging, said Larry Hugo, 47, who leads a group of at least 114 fishermen.
More than a decade ago, China transformed seven disputed South China Sea reefs into island bases, where Chinese coast guard and navy ships can now refuel and obtain supplies for longer periods far from the Chinese mainland.
One of China's artificial islands, Subi, has a military-grade runway and lies just 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Thitu.
'There were no Chinese ships before but now it's a big problem because they are all around our island,' Hugo said. 'They're guarding the reefs where we used to fish, and they block us so we can't venture far.'
'It's very dangerous,' he said. 'We have small boats and we may be run over and that'll be a big problem because we're far from civilization.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
China's Stealthy Solar Exports Stay One Step Ahead of US Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- The hum of solar panel factories in this steamy island city doesn't sound like much. But to American trade officials, it's the muffled noise of rules being bent — or broken. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom In recent months, Batam, a duty-free Indonesian enclave a short ferry ride from Singapore, has become a key waypoint in a convoluted global shuffle. Chinese solar manufacturers, facing stiff US tariffs, are quietly assembling their equipment in Indonesia and slipping their products into the American market, tariff-free. It's an elegant workaround. But it may not last long. According to Bloomberg News analysis of trade and corporate records, Indonesia's 10 biggest exporters of solar cells and panels sold $608 million worth of products to the US during the first half of 2025. Of those, Bloomberg News identified six firms in Batam where company records indicate they are ultimately owned by executives at Chinese solar companies. Those firms accounted for almost 70% of the exports to the US. Earlier in July, a coalition of US solar manufacturers, including First Solar Inc. and Mission Solar Energy, filed trade petitions against Indonesia, India and Laos. They claimed Chinese companies were gaming the system, flooding the US market with unfairly cheap goods made in the three Asian countries. This prompted the US International Trade Commission to begin an investigation into the anti-dumping and countervailing allegations.'Under President Trump, America is no longer a dumping ground for cheap imports that undermine our industries and workers,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. 'While the Department of Commerce conducts an anti-dumping investigation into solar panels, the administration is closely monitoring transshipment and other methods of undermining our tariffs policies.' The Trump administration hasn't released any detailed definition of what exactly constitutes a transshipment. It's also unclear whether any of these Chinese-owned Batam-based solar companies are rerouting products through Indonesia to avoid the steep US solar tariffs — which has effectively barred Chinese firms' direct access to the lucrative American market — or if the firms are genuinely producing the products in Batam to count as Indonesian Batam, the Indonesian authority managing the island economy, said it hasn't as yet received any confirmation about the start of an anti-dumping investigation. It's working closely with the central and local government to support fair and transparent international trade, BP Batam said in response to a Bloomberg News query. 'So far, partner countries have acknowledged and appreciated the role of the Indonesian government, BP Batam, and the Batam City government in navigating global trade dynamics responsibly,' it said. Indonesia's trade ministry and China's commerce ministry didn't respond to a request for comment on the allegations from the US solar industry. This would not be China's first dance around trade barriers. When Western nations slapped tariffs on Chinese solar goods over a decade ago, the country's manufacturers simply moved production — first to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The strategy worked. Southeast Asian exports, often Chinese in disguise, flowed into the US tariff-free for years. By 2024, the region had become the largest solar exporter to the US. Then Washington moved to shut the loophole. First, the US Department of Commerce, under former President Joe Biden, launched an anti-dumping and countervailing probe against Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The year-long investigation found manufacturers were dumping cheap exports into the American market at prices lower than the cost of production. Then in April, under President Donald Trump, the four Southeast Asian nations were hit with tariffs as high as 3,521%. 'Chinese-headquartered solar companies have been cheating the system, undercutting US companies and costing American workers their livelihoods,' Tim Brightbill, co-chair of law firm Wiley's international trade practice, said in April. Brightbill is lead counsel for the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, the coalition of solar companies that successfully pressured the Commerce Department into launching the investigation. The April tariffs forced US buyers to reshuffle where they shop. Indonesia, not covered by the ruling, emerged as one of the biggest winners. Batam, a popular spot for cheap golf trips and long a weekend escape for Singaporeans, turned into the destination for something else: Chinese capital and solar ambitions. 'As other jurisdictions in Southeast Asia have come under increasing scrutiny, factories have continued to relocate in a cat-and-mouse fashion,' said Niclas D. Weimar, head of technology at Sinovoltaics, a Dutch-German compliance and quality assurance firm for the solar industry. Some of the biggest Chinese solar companies have landed there in the last two years, churning out solar panels straight for the US market. Indonesia exported a total $733 million in solar products to the US between January and May this year, a 350% increase from last year, according to US customs data. One example: PT Rec Solar Energy Indonesia, now the country's largest solar exporter to the US. The company sent $219 million worth of panels across the Pacific in the first half of 2025 — virtually all of its output. It began exporting from Batam in 2023, based on information from its parent NE Solar, a Cambodian company founded in 2022, according to their website. Dig a little deeper, and Cambodian companies registry shows NE Solar's previous director was Huang Yunfei, who is also the owner of a Chinese manufacturer called Huzhou Zhongdian Solar. US and Canadian trademark data show Huzhou Zhongdian Solar owns the 'NE Solar' trademark, while the Cambodian NE Solar owns the trademark in that country. NE Solar's current director is Cheng Shen, whose office address in a Cambodian registry shows is just 4 kilometers away from Huzhou Zhongdian Solar. The ties don't end there. In the first half of 2025, PT Rec imported 91% of its production materials, or $92 million worth, from Huzhou Paluo Yunpeng New Materials, a company owned by the same owners as Huzhou Zhongdian, according to Chinese business records. In other words: the factory might be in Indonesia, but the supply chain — and control — appears to be firmly to PT Rec's office in Batam went unanswered. Calls to a personal phone number listed for Cheng Shen on Cambodia's registration record went unanswered, while Bloomberg News couldn't find contact details for Huang Yunfei. Calls to Huzhou Zhongdian also went unanswered. Email inquiries sent to NE Solar and Huzhou Zhongdian were also unanswered. Companies registries in Indonesia and China also list Chinese solar firms' directors or subsidiaries as the beneficial owners of five other Batam-based companies – PT Nusa Solar Indonesia, PT Blue Sky Solar Indonesia, PT Allianz Solar Indonesia, PT Thornova Solar Indonesia and PT Msun Solar Nusa and PT Blue Sky didn't respond to requests for comment when contacted by phone, and a PT Nusa employee declined to immediately comment when reached on LinkedIn. Bloomberg News couldn't find phone numbers for the rest of the companies in public records or online. Emails sent to all five firms' listed addresses weren't responded to, while messages sent to company employees at four of the firms on LinkedIn went unanswered. Bloomberg News reporters haven't visited these factories. Together, the six Chinese-owned companies sold $419 million worth of solar cells and panels directly to America in the first half of this year, up 148% from a year ago. The surge of solar exports to the US isn't limited to Indonesia. In Laos, which was also spared the April tariff ruling, solar exports have skyrocketed from virtually nothing in early 2024 to $717 million in the first five months of this year, US trade data showed. India went from $10 million in 2022 to $345 million this year. If the US International Trade Commission's investigation against Indonesia, Laos and India concludes there were unfair trade practices, another round of duties could soon hit. Which raises the question: where do the Chinese solar giants go next?The answer depends on how painful the new tariffs turn out to be. Indonesia has negotiated Trump down from a retaliatory tariff rate initially set at 32% in April to 19% earlier this month, making it more attractive than its neighbors, according to BNEF analyst Felix many Chinese firms aren't waiting to find April, JA Solar told Bloomberg News it was accelerating its overseas expansion while closely tracking US tariff developments. Among its bets: a new plant in Oman expected to open by the end of 2025, with a capacity of six gigawatts for cells and three gigawatts for Holding Co., another heavyweight, is going bigger. It's building a 10-gigawatt cell and module factory in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund and Vision Industries. Neither company has indicated plans to sell to the US market. Still, there's no denying that Chinese solar companies will need to tread more cautiously with Trump at the helm, says Cosimo Ries, a Shanghai-based analyst at researcher Trivium China. 'If you're trying to make a long-term decision to invest, everywhere has become so unstable,' Ries said. 'Solar especially, because it's one of the most attacked industries of all.' But at least for now, the faint hums of Batam's solar factories are continuing. --Andy Lin and Ocean Hou. --With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse, Eko Listiyorini, Shadab Nazmi, Chandra Asmara, Tassia Sipahutar and Ben Otto. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How a vote targeting 'pro-China' lawmakers has split Taiwan
For most of his life, Deng Pu didn't see himself as an activist – but that changed last year. Furious at what he felt was undemocratic behaviour by Taiwan's lawmakers and overt Chinese influence in parliament, he joined thousands of others in a massive street protest. Two months ago, he signed up with a campaign group. He has never done these things before. "Previous social movements were important, but to be honest they didn't make me this angry," the 39-year-old photographer told the BBC. "We are citizens... and we need to make sure our society sticks to its democratic systems and spirit." Now, that anger is reaching a turning point. On Saturday Taiwan will hold a vote to decide whether to kick out more than two dozen lawmakers accused of being too close to China, in what has been called "dabamian", or the Great Recall. The unprecedented vote may alter the balance of political power in Taiwan. But already it has deepened political divisions, with both sides of the debate claiming to be the saviour of Taiwan's sacred democracy. It began with last January's elections, when voters chose the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) William Lai as their president, but gave the opposition the dominant presence in the parliamentary Legislative Yuan. In the following months, the main opposition party Kuomintang worked together with the smaller Taiwan People's Party and independents to block DPP bills and pass controversial pieces of legislation. This included limiting the constitutional court's powers, cutting the government's budget, and raising the threshold for holding recall votes. These moves provoked significant outrage among some Taiwanese, who saw them as stymying the DPP government while strengthening the opposition's parliamentary power. In May 2024, thousands began holding protests in what became known as the Bluebird movement, named partially after the Taipei street where many had gathered. Many in the movement believe the opposition, led by the Kuomintang which is known for its relatively friendlier position on China, is being influenced by Beijing and secretly pushing China's agenda in Taiwan's legislature. The party has denied this, but suspicion grew when a group of Kuomintang lawmakers visited China last year and were welcomed by top-ranking Chinese Communist Party official Wang Huning. Civic groups in the Bluebird movement launched petitions to oust various Kuomintang lawmakers, while Kuomintang supporters retaliated by doing the same to some DPP lawmakers. So far, petitions for 31 lawmakers' seats have received enough preliminary support to proceed with a final recall vote. All these seats are held by the Kuomintang - and if enough are successfully recalled, it could mean the DPP eventually gains the majority in the legislature. While Taiwan has held recall votes before, it has never seen so many within such a short space of time. On Saturday, citizens in 24 districts will vote on a simple yes or no question: whether they agree to boot out their legislator. Another round of voting will be held in August for the remaining recall cases. In each district, if the number of votes exceeds 25% of registered voters and more than half approve the recall, the seat will be vacated and a by-election must be held within three months. This means that voter turnout is crucial for the Great Recall's success - and it is the reason why civic groups have been relentlessly flooding social media and pounding the streets canvassing for votes. On a recent weekday night, Deng Pu and several members of his civic group stood outside a Taipei subway station. Some held up banners and chanted slogans, while others distributed paper fans and tissue packets emblazoned with the words "Let's go out together to vote" and "Say yes to the recall". Mr Deng acknowledged that with several of the recall votes taking place in Kuomintang strongholds, even if they did succeed, the party could be re-elected in by-elections. Even so, the Great Recall would still be worth it, he insisted, as it was a way to "correct our democracy". Whatever the result may be, it would "send a strong signal to all the political parties you must respect the latest wishes of Taiwan's citizens." Mr Deng acknowledged that many in the Bluebird movement were DPP supporters, but denied that the civic groups were funded by the party – a theory heavily pushed by the opposition. "We don't care whether DPP wins the by-elections. What's more urgent to us is that we hope to have a normal parliament, one that is not close to China and the Chinese Communist Party." He also took issue with what he saw as a weak response from the DPP, saying: "From the first recall petition till now, the civic groups have been telling the DPP that the citizens are here and there are many of us... We are strongly calling on the DPP to join us." The DPP had initially sought to distance itself from the Great Recall. But eventually it showed its support, with Lai stressing that the DPP "must align with the power of the people" and ordering party officials to assist pro-recall groups to "protect the nation". This has inevitably fueled the opposition's accusation that the DPP has secretly engineered the Great Recall and Bluebird movement, pointing to the fact that the DPP could reap the most political gain. It not only stands a chance of winning a permanent majority in the legislature. Even if the Kuomintang eventually wins in the by-elections, the DPP would have held the majority for a few weeks, giving it enough time to push through crucial laws. Anti-recall protests organised by the Kuomintang and other opposition parties have drawn thousands. At one such rally in the New Taipei district of Banqiao last weekend, supporters showed up waving banners and chanting "No to the vote" while crossing their arms. As they took to the stage, speaker after speaker condemned the Great Recall while characterising William Lai as a fascist and authoritarian traitor of Taiwan's democracy. Large screens played videos of Lai doctored to make him look like Adolf Hitler with the words "Fuhrer Lai", as well as the slogan "Green Terror" – a reference to the DPP's party colour and the White Terror, a period of authoritarian rule and political repression under the Kuomintang. The rhetoric echoed that of Beijing, which has waded into the debate while watching from afar. Its Taiwan Affairs Office has accused Lai of "engaging in dictatorship under the guise of democracy" and "using every means possible to suppress the opposition". "The recall lawmakers were chosen by the majority of voters in their districts. If they are not good enough, they can be voted out in the next election," said rally attendee Mu Zili. "Why should we be using this evil way of getting rid of them?" The 68-year-old night shift worker insisted that the lawmakers were being targeted simply because they belonged to the Kuomintang, and that the Bluebird activists were working for the DPP. "You can't have one party take down the other one in one big recall, this is not democratic," Ms Mu said. "I side with blue," she added, referring to the Kuomintang's party colour. "But I don't oppose green. I'm here not because I support the Kuomintang, but to protect democracy." But there are also many Taiwanese who are on the fence. Watching the anti-recall rally from the sidelines was Banqiao resident Peggy Lin. Like several other bystanders the BBC spoke to, she was bewildered by the fuss over the Great Recall. "I don't know what it's about really, I haven't followed the debate at all… so I don't have an opinion," said the 43-year-old childcare worker. "I will vote after I read more into it and decide based on how I feel on that day about it." Analysts say that regardless of the outcome, the Great Recall will leave a lasting impact on Taiwan's polarised society. The political fighting has gotten nasty at times. Legislators have brawled in parliament over the political deadlock, while activists have faced doxxing and abuse. Mr Deng told the BBC that while out canvassing, he and his team mates had been assaulted or pushed around by residents opposing the vote. The vote has also not gone without scandal: officials have discovered numerous forged signatures, many of deceased voters, in recall petitions against both DPP and Kuomintang lawmakers. The vote "will cement the notion of four year terms as not a given but as conditional on performance and subject to periodic reviews. Political polarisation will likely get worse before it gets better," said Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University's Taiwan Studies programme. But the Great Recall is also "creating space for renewed political activism", especially for DPP supporters, added Dr Sung, which he characterised as an overall boon to the resiliency of Taiwan's civil society. Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China, said if many of the recall votes succeed, "one signal it would send to politicians in Taiwan is that they should be careful with how far they push the line in public sentiment… they can't stray too far as there would be consequences". "But if it fizzles out, then it emboldens politicians to do what they want," he noted. "It will intensify the polarisation… and it would be easy for politicians to write off the Great Recall as yet another civil society movement that doesn't get enough momentum beyond a certain part of the population." If there was a close but not conclusive result overall, however, it may mean "the Kuomintang and DPP will have to ultimately seek compromise and work together". This, added Dr Chong, "may not be a bad thing for Taiwan".
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘We don't deserve this.' Women held in limbo at ICE's downtown S.F. center awaiting bed space
Three women who were detained by federal immigration officers at court Wednesday were held overnight inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's downtown San Francisco field office and remained there Thursday afternoon because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities, one of the women and her attorney told the Chronicle. The 27-year-old Colombian woman from San Jose said in an interview she was held overnight in a cell on the sixth floor of 630 Sansome St., along with two other women who were also detained on Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Department of Justice's San Francisco Immigration Court. She described the room as a small space with a toilet, a bench, a thin mattress and a small window where she could see officers standing outside. ICE representatives did not immediately respond to questions about the woman's arrest and detention. The Chronicle is not naming her, per its anonymous source policy, due to her fears of retaliation. The women are among many immigrants who have been held at the San Francisco ICE field office in recent weeks while officials make arrangements to transfer people to detention centers, said Jessica Yamane, an immigration attorney with Pangea Legal Services and Santa Clara County's Rapid Response Network. Some have been held for days, she said, a source of additional trauma as they already face uncertainty over what will happen to them. Yamane said ICE representatives told her that the woman was being held at the field office because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities. Detained migrants from the Bay Area are typically transferred to detention centers in Southern California. Immigration attorneys and advocates have reported overcrowding and deteriorating conditions at ICE detention facilities across the country. An ICE representative told NPR that 'some ICE facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to recent increases in detention populations' and implementing measures to manage capacity. ICE typically places immigrants in holding cells in its field offices for a few hours at a time before transferring them elsewhere, but there have been reports of longer stays and overcrowding in these facilities as well. Yamane said the overnight detentions at the 630 Sansome St. building reminded her of when immigration officials used the upper floors of the building as a detention center for Chinese immigrants post-World War II. 'It's been the same mechanism of terror through detention that have broken people's spirits for generations,' she said. On Thursday afternoon in a cold visitation room, the Colombian woman told the Chronicle through a glass window that plainclothes ICE officers arrested her as she exited a courtroom at 100 Montgomery St. around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. An asylum seeker, the woman said she had just attended her first courthouse appointment, where the judge rescheduled her appointment for October because she didn't have an attorney. 'Everything was going well. I didn't see any risk because the judge gave me another date,' she said. Two men identified themselves as ICE agents, handcuffed her and walked out the building through a back door, she said. They forcefully pushed her into an unmarked car and told her they were taking her to the ICE field office, she said. 'They were hurting me,' she said, tears falling down her cheeks. 'I hadn't done anything wrong.' She was placed in a cell with two other women. During the interview with the Chronicle, an immigration official walked into the visitation room to drop off a meal — a bean and cheese burrito, a breakfast bar and bottled water. She said ICE officials have not told her where she will be sent. 'They're treating us like criminals,' she said. 'We don't deserve this treatment. We are just trying to do the right thing.' She said she flew to Mexico and crossed the U.S. border in December 2022, fleeing violence she experienced in her hometown of Bogota. In the U.S., she moved in with her boyfriend in San Jose and worked at a local restaurant and delivered food via UberEats with her partner. Their dream, she said, was to save enough money to open their own auto repair and body shop. 'It's a dream that I don't know will happen now,' she said.
