Unnecessary irritants

Here we go again, and during the Lunar New Year celebrations. As ethnic Chinese worldwide prepared to welcome the Year of the Golden Dragon, the Philippine Navy en-countered four Chinese fishing vessels near Scarborough Shoal. Two of the boats got away but the Navy intercepted the other two and found dynamite, blasting caps and soft corals on board. Last Wednesday, a Navy patrol craft spotted another Chinese fishing vessel off Scar-borough. When the fishing vessel tried to slip away, the Navy craft fired a warning shot.

The shoal is a rich fishing ground that lies just 125 nautical miles off Zambales -- well within the Philippines' 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Scarborough is nearly 1,000 nautical miles away from China, yet Beijing is claiming the shoal as part of its territory, together with the entire South China Sea. It has often been noted that among the six claimants to the Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea, China has been the most aggressive in staking its claim. It has refused to budge from the Philippine-claimed Mischief or Panganiban Reef which lies off Palawan.

Philippine authorities had earlier destroyed Chinese markers on Scarborough. Since then Beijing has supported calls for a status quo in the South China Sea, even as it continued expanding its structures in Mischief and its fishermen continued poaching around Scarborough. The recent incidents prove that Beijing not only refuses to recognize its neighbors' territories, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but also ignores international efforts to stop dynamite fishing and the destruction of corals that serve as spawning grounds of fish.

These recent encounters are unlikely to lead to a shooting war. Both countries continue to pursue peaceful means of resolving territorial conflicts. But such incidents are unnecessary irritants to bilateral relations. If China wants to position itself as an emerging power, it will have to start projecting a more benign image to the world. It can start by observing a little neighborliness in this region.