China’s latest move at Scarborough Shoal shows how one remote reef can ignite a global maritime crisis. For the Philippines, this low-lying atoll just 124 nautical miles from Luzon is both a traditional fishing ground and, under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The country’s legal claim was reaffirmed by the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling, which invalidated China’s sweeping “nine-dash line,” but Beijing has never complied.
On September 10, 2025, Beijing escalated again, unilaterally declaring a “Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve.” China frames this as environmental stewardship to “protect biodiversity,” yet the order authorizes stricter law enforcement against “illegal activities,” in effect threatening to drive Philippine boats away. Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez called it “another maneuver to justify their 10-dash line claim,” and Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs promptly branded the act “illegitimate and unlawful.”
The substance behind the green label is lawfare, the calculated use of legal-sounding measures to create facts on the water. By asserting environmental jurisdiction inside another nation’s EEZ, China directly violates UNCLOS and defies the 2016 arbitral award. It also reprises the Mischief Reef precedent of the 1990s, when a supposed fishermen’s shelter became a fully militarized outpost.
Meanwhile, China has ramped up coast-guard and naval patrols, even causing a recent collision while blocking a Philippine patrol boat. These actions draw protests not only from Manila but also from allies such as the United States, which reiterates that its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines applies to attacks on public vessels. The stakes extend beyond bilateral friction: Scarborough lies astride vital sea-lanes, so unchecked Chinese control threatens freedom of navigation for all nations.
For Filipino fishermen, the consequences are immediate and painful. Despite the 2016 ruling, many are harassed or barred from their own fishing grounds, cutting incomes and endangering livelihoods. Ironically, China’s environmental justification is undermined by its own record of giant-clam harvesting and coral destruction, which has already damaged regional spawning grounds.
What emerges is a pattern: a conservation pretext masking a strategic power grab. China’s “nature reserve” is not about protecting reefs but about tightening administrative and military control, deepening a security dilemma in which every defensive move risks being seen as offensive. The Scarborough Shoal episode will therefore remain a litmus test of whether international law and diplomacy can check raw power in the South China Sea.
The Factual and Legal Basis of Philippine Sovereignty
Scarborough Shoal, known locally as Bajo de Masinloc, has for centuries served as a traditional fishing ground for Filipino fisherfolk. Generations of fishermen from the coastal provinces of Zambales and Pangasinan have relied on its rich marine life, underscoring a long and uninterrupted historical connection. Geographically, the shoal lies only about 120 nautical miles west of Luzon, well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under UNCLOS, features like Scarborough Shoal that fall inside a nation’s EEZ grant that country sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage natural resources, both living and non-living, within those waters.
The Philippines’ claim is further strengthened by international law, particularly the landmark 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague. In its authoritative decision, the tribunal declared China’s sweeping “nine-dash line” claim to have no legal basis under UNCLOS. The ruling explicitly confirmed that the Philippines enjoys sovereign rights over the resources in its EEZ, including the waters surrounding Scarborough Shoal. Crucially, the PCA also found that China had violated those rights by preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing the shoal’s traditional fishing grounds, a direct rebuke of Beijing’s coercive actions.
Despite the clarity and binding nature of the PCA’s findings, China has consistently rejected and refused to recognize the decision. By ignoring an international legal ruling accepted by the broader global community, Beijing undermines not only the Philippines’ sovereign rights but also the rule-based maritime order itself. Together, the shoal’s centuries-long use by Filipinos, its indisputable geographical location within the Philippine EEZ, and the PCA’s unequivocal legal validation form a robust factual and legal foundation for Manila’s sovereignty claims, making China’s unilateral “nature reserve” declaration both unlawful and provocative.
China’s “Nature Reserve” Declaration: A Strategic Maneuver
On September 10, 2025, China’s State Council officially announced the establishment of the “Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve,” its own name for Scarborough Shoal. According to Chinese state media, the move was described as an “important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the natural ecosystem.” At face value, this sounded like an environmental milestone: a marine conservation zone intended to preserve fish stocks and protect coral reefs. Yet to the Philippines and many regional analysts, the announcement carried an entirely different meaning, one of calculated geopolitics dressed in green.
In practice, the nature reserve designation is not a neutral environmental measure but a textbook case of “lawfare.” This term, used by international law experts, refers to the strategic use of legal or quasi-legal means to achieve military or political goals without resorting to open conflict. By unilaterally declaring Scarborough Shoal a protected zone, Beijing is attempting to convert its de facto occupation, achieved since the 2012 standoff, into a de jure claim of jurisdiction. The environmental rationale provides a softer public face, but the effect is to consolidate control and restrict access, all while avoiding the overt optics of armed aggression.
Key details of the announcement underscore this intent. Along with the nature reserve declaration, Chinese authorities ordered agencies to “intensify supervision and law enforcement against all illegal and irregular activities.” While couched in bureaucratic language, this is widely interpreted as a thinly veiled warning to Philippine fishermen and maritime patrols that China now considers any unapproved presence within the shoal’s waters as “illegal.” This effectively paves the way for stepped-up patrols by the China Coast Guard and maritime militia, which could intercept, board, or expel Philippine vessels operating well inside the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Philippine leaders were quick to reject Beijing’s framing. Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez dismissed the initiative as “obviously another maneuvering move by China to justify their 10-dash line claim.” His words point to a deeper strategy: by attaching Chinese legal categories to Scarborough Shoal, Beijing is seeking to normalize its presence and bolster its sweeping claims, despite the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that found China’s “nine-dash line” (and by extension the updated ten-dash line) to have no legal basis under international law.
The timing of the announcement further highlights its geopolitical character. It coincided with heightened tensions in the South China Sea, including recent collisions between Chinese and Philippine vessels and an uptick in Chinese patrols around Second Thomas Shoal. By advancing a “nature reserve” narrative now, China creates a new pretext for maritime enforcement and complicates diplomatic negotiations, all while projecting an image of environmental responsibility to a global audience concerned about marine biodiversity.
In sum, the so-called Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is less about coral reefs than about control. It illustrates Beijing’s sophisticated use of environmental language as a tool of statecraft, turning conservation into a geopolitical instrument. For the Philippines, the move is a direct challenge to sovereignty and a test of its resolve to defend internationally recognized rights, while for the wider region it underscores how ecological arguments can be weaponized to advance strategic ambitions in contested seas.
What’s REALLY Next for Philippines Air Power After F-16 Deal Falls Apart
Undermining Philippine Sovereignty: Specific Violations
China’s unilateral declaration of the so-called Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve strikes at the heart of the Philippines’ legally recognized authority over its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), only the Philippines has the right to regulate, manage, and conserve natural resources within the 200-nautical-mile EEZ measured from its coastline. Scarborough Shoal lies barely 120 nautical miles from Luzon, well inside this zone. By claiming the right to police the area, enforce environmental rules, and decide who may enter, Beijing is usurping powers reserved exclusively for the coastal state, nullifying Manila’s ability to create its own marine protected areas or manage fisheries in its own waters. This move also flagrantly violates international law. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, acting under UNCLOS, to which both China and the Philippines are signatories, ruled that China’s expansive “nine-dash line” claim had no legal basis and that Scarborough Shoal falls within the Philippines’ EEZ. The tribunal further held that China unlawfully interfered with Filipino fishermen’s traditional rights. By declaring a Chinese-administered nature reserve and threatening enforcement action, Beijing is openly defying a binding legal award and undermining the very treaty framework (UNCLOS) it once accepted. This is not a mere diplomatic disagreement; it is a deliberate breach of international obligations. The Philippines has seen this playbook before. In 1995, China occupied Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef) after initially claiming to build only a “shelter for fishermen.” What began as a supposed humanitarian outpost quickly evolved into permanent installations and eventually a fully militarized base with runways, radars, and missile systems. Many Filipino security analysts view the Scarborough Shoal “nature reserve” as a repeat of the Mischief Reef strategy, incremental encroachment under benign cover, ultimately creating another fortified Chinese outpost deep within Philippine waters. The historical precedent underscores the risk that Beijing’s conservation narrative is merely the first step in a well-tested campaign of gradual but irreversible occupation.
Escalation of Regional Tensions
China’s “nature reserve” declaration has been matched by a visible surge in hard-power activity around Scarborough Shoal. Since early 2025, Philippine maritime monitors have documented a sharp uptick in Chinese Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) deployments at the feature. Dozens of large Chinese vessels now loiter near the shoal on a near-continuous basis, with satellite imagery in mid-2025 revealing overlapping patrol patterns and the use of powerful water cannons to deter Filipino boats. Tensions spiked further in August 2025 when, in a rare display of disorder, a PLAN warship accidentally collided with a Chinese Coast Guard cutter while both were maneuvering to block an approaching Philippine patrol. This unprecedented incident underscored the congestion and volatility that now define the area, where even Chinese forces risk dangerous miscalculations.
Diplomatic consequences were immediate. On Thursday, September 11, 2025, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) lodged a formal diplomatic protest, denouncing Beijing’s action as “illegitimate and unlawful.” Manila’s statement stressed that the so-called Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve “has no basis in international law and violates Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights.” Key allies swiftly echoed these concerns. The United States reiterated that any armed attack on Philippine public vessels or forces in the South China Sea would invoke mutual defense obligations under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. Similar statements of support came from Japan and Australia, reinforcing Manila’s effort to build a coalition that can exert diplomatic pressure on Beijing.
The move also strikes at the principle of freedom of navigation, a cornerstone of international maritime law and global commerce. Scarborough Shoal sits near major sea lanes used by vessels carrying energy supplies and goods between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. By signaling stricter “law enforcement” and building a de facto exclusion zone, China jeopardizes the unimpeded passage of commercial shipping and naval patrols alike. Such coercion threatens not only regional stability but also a global trading system that depends on open seas, prompting continued freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) by the U.S., Japan, and Australia to challenge Beijing’s claims. In short, China’s actions at Scarborough Shoal are intensifying the security dilemma across the Indo-Pacific, raising the risk of maritime accidents, diplomatic crises, and potential armed confrontation.
U.S. Returns to Subic Bay With World’s Largest Military Base
Economic and Human Impact on Filipinos
For the Filipino fishing communities of Zambales and Pangasinan, Scarborough Shoal is more than a distant reef, it is their economic lifeline. Before China’s blockade, as many as 5,000 fishermen from these provinces depended on its rich fishing grounds, with typical catches providing up to 80% of their annual income. Even after the 2016 arbitral ruling affirmed their rights, Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels have continued to shadow, harass, or block Filipino boats, forcing many to cut trips short or stay home altogether. “We go out to sea with fear in our hearts,” one fisherman told local media, describing how water cannon blasts and ramming incidents have left them both economically stranded and personally at risk. The result is falling household incomes, mounting debt, and an exodus of younger fishermen seeking safer livelihoods ashore.
China’s claim that its new “nature reserve” protects the environment rings hollow in light of its own record of ecological damage. Marine scientists have documented large-scale coral destruction at Scarborough Shoal, caused by illegal harvesting of giant clams and dredging activities linked to Chinese operators. The shoal is a major spawning ground for commercially important fish species, which means that every destroyed coral bed diminishes fish stocks not only for Filipino fishermen but also for the broader South China Sea ecosystem. Environmental experts warn that if current practices continue, critical fish populations could collapse, undermining food security and livelihoods across the region. Far from conserving marine resources, Beijing’s latest move threatens both the ecological balance and the economic survival of thousands of coastal families who have relied on Scarborough’s waters for generations.
PH Navy Just Got Stronger! BRP Diego Silang FFG-07 Joins Fleet
Conclusion
China’s declaration of a so-called “Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve” is far more than an environmental initiative, it is a calculated act of lawfare designed to entrench de facto control over Scarborough Shoal. By unilaterally imposing rules inside the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone, Beijing flouts the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling and the spirit of UNCLOS, heightens regional tensions, and inflicts direct economic and human costs on Filipino fishing communities.
Looking ahead, the move deepens a classic security dilemma: every Philippine effort to defend its sovereign rights, be it coast guard patrols, legal protests, or alliance-building, may be cast by China as provocation, prompting ever more aggressive countermeasures. This self-reinforcing cycle risks transforming an environmental pretext into a flashpoint for open confrontation, where a single miscalculation could spark a wider conflict in the South China Sea.
Ultimately, Scarborough Shoal has become a litmus test for international law and collective diplomacy. Whether the dispute ends in negotiated restraint or hard-power escalation will determine not only the Philippines’ ability to protect its maritime lifelines, but also the credibility of a global rules-based order in the face of unilateral power projection.
