The Global Times claimed that the Philippines “illegally trespassed” into Chinese waters during a resupply mission to the Sabina Shoal.

The China Coast Guard on Sunday took restrictive measures against a Philippine vessel that illegally trespassed into waters off China’s Xianbin Jiao in the South China Sea, with Chinese experts calling on Manila to withdraw its quasi-grounded vessel at the Chinese reef.… pic.twitter.com/c5DBV8kx0v

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 25, 2024

Verdict: Misleading

Sabina Shoal is within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). China claims the entirety of the South China Sea, which was denied by an international tribunal in 2016.

Fact Check:

The Philippines and China have engaged in a months-long standoff over the Sabina Shoal, also known as Xianbin Jiao, according to USNI News. The Philippine Coast Guard flagship, the Teresa Magbanua, is currently anchored there, the outlet reported.

The Global Times, a Chinese paper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party’s “flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily,” claimed that the Philippines “illegally trespassed” in Chinese waters on Aug. 25.

“The China Coast Guard on Sunday took restrictive measures against a Philippine vessel that illegally trespassed into waters off China’s Xianbin Jiao in the South China Sea, with Chinese experts calling on Manila to withdraw its quasi-grounded vessel at the Chinese reef,” reads the Global Times tweet.

This claim is misleading. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), which controls mainland China, claims around 90% of the South China Sea, also known as the nine-dash line, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission. This claim was rejected by an international tribunal in 2016, which Beijing refused to recognize, NPR reported.

Sabina Shoal is within the Philippines’ EEZ, according to the Guardian. The Philippines claims this allows them to build in the area, which the PRC rejects, the outlet reported.

Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Check Your Fact that “any notion of China enforcing a fishing ban or any other regulatory action there is not lawful.”

“Sabina and Second Thomas [Shoal] are within the UNCLOS recognized Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines. This means that the Philippines or China has right to the sea floor and sealift natural resources in the area. So any notion of China enforcing a fishing ban or any other regulatory action there is not lawful,” Sadler said.

Sadler further said, “A 2016 international arbitration case further stated that claims of territorial waters and Chinas actions in the South China Sea are illegal.”

A State Department spokesperson told Check Your Fact that Sabina Shoal is not within “Chinese waters.” (RELATED: Beijing Claims’ Volt Typhoon’ Is A US Disinformation Campaign)

“No, Sabina Shoal is not Chinese waters. Under the international law of the sea Sabina Shoal is a ‘low-tide elevation,’ over which no country can assert sovereignty.  Sabina Shoal and the waters around it are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson further said that the “PRC uses dangerous and escalatory measures to enforce its expansive South China Sea maritime claims, which an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention firmly rejected as having no basis in international law. As set out in that Convention, the arbitral award is legally binding on the PRC and the Philippines.”

Check Your Fact reached out to the Global Times for comment and did not receive a response. The Philippines Embassy in the United States stated that a request for comment was “referred to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).”