“It is not in our interest that they are doing this. They are, in effect, further militarising the islands,” he said.
Malaya’s remarks came after John Aquilino, who last week retired as the top US military commander in the Indo-Pacific, said “China’s intended use of floating nuclear power plants has potential impacts to all nations in the region”.
China’s regulators in 2023, however, announced the suspension of a project to build the reactors after more than 10 years of research, citing safety concerns.
According to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing has reclaimed more than 1,294 hectares (3,200 acres) of land from 2013 to 2016 in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, a major flashpoint between the economic giant and the Philippines.
China has also constructed military installations, including radar systems and communications equipment, on several contested islands such as the Spratlys and Paracels.
Manila has frequently accused China’s coastguard of ramming tactics and firing water cannons at its boats that deliver supplies to a handful of troops stationed on a rusty warship in the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys.
04:30
Philippines sets up ‘game changer’ monitoring station on island in disputed South China Sea
Philippines sets up ‘game changer’ monitoring station on island in disputed South China Sea
Malaya said joint patrols involving the United States and Australia would be deployed to deter China’s actions in the waterway but ruled out the same strategy for resupply missions to the shoal as it could be viewed as “escalating the ante”, The Philippine Star reported.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said Manila was keen on lowering the temperature in the South China Sea and urged Beijing to convene the meeting of a bilateral panel on the waterway at the earliest.
In response, China’s foreign ministry demanded the Philippines stop sending construction materials to repair the crumbling vessel it grounded in 1999 to assert its territorial claims in the Second Thomas Shoal.
Meanwhile, a Philippine civilian coalition that last year sent a flotilla to Second Thomas Shoal, said a similar voyage would be undertaken next week to the fish-rich Scarborough Shoal, which China has controlled since 2012.
The group said its members would place symbolic buoys there to “reinforce the country’s territorial integrity”.
As the maritime discord rumbles on, the Bank of America recently warned that “any deterioration in Philippines-China relationship could exert greater drags” on the Southeast Asian nation’s economy.
But a senior official at the National Economic and Development Authority said Manila’s stance on the sea row “need not negatively affect” ties with its largest trading partner, as the two issues were not interlinked.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entirety of the South China Sea – where the Philippines and several other nations have competing claims – and has rejected a 2016 international ruling that decided in favour of Manila and found China’s assertions have no legal basis.