Philippine military counts 80 Chinese warships and coast guard ships in its waters in October

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Tuesday 3 November that it had monitored 80 Chinese vessels at four key features in the West Philippine Sea during October, down from 101 the month before. The ships were a mix of People's Liberation Army Navy warships and China Coast Guard vessels, according to GMA News and the Daily Tribune.

Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, the military's spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, released the update covering 1 to 31 October. The West Philippine Sea is the name Manila uses for the parts of the South China Sea that lie within its exclusive economic zone, including the waters around Scarborough Shoal, which it calls Bajo de Masinloc, and the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratlys.

Where the ships were

According to the Daily Tribune, the Philippine Navy recorded 33 Chinese navy ships and 47 coast guard vessels over the month. Scarborough Shoal had the largest presence, with 41 vessels made up of 11 navy ships and 30 coast guard ships. At Second Thomas Shoal, known in Manila as Ayungin Shoal, the navy counted 24 Chinese vessels, 13 of them warships.

A further 11 vessels, eight of them navy ships, were seen at Sabina Shoal, which the Philippines calls Escoda Shoal. Four, including one warship, were tracked near Pag-asa Island, known internationally as Thitu, the largest Philippine-held feature in the Spratlys, the newspaper reported.

The military described the activity as illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive, a set of tactics it says undermines the rules-based order and challenges Philippine sovereign rights. It also said the navy monitored 19,051 domestic and foreign vessels across its wider areas of interest in October, and that 4,997 of them did not answer radio challenges.

An unexplained craft at Scarborough

Separately, the Philippine Coast Guard is investigating a Chinese vessel carrying unidentified equipment inside the lagoon of Scarborough Shoal, The Defense Post reported. Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, the coast guard's spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, told the state broadcaster PTV that the service was trying to establish what the craft could do and believed it might be a Chinese government support vessel.

The coast guard first spotted the vessel on 3 October, and its configuration has changed several times since. On a maritime domain awareness flight on 29 October, crews saw it towing a smaller boat and carrying an orange, boat-shaped object fitted with sensors and antennas. The service is examining whether the equipment could support underwater operations, and has warned against calling the ship a research vessel because its bow and IMO numbers do not match known Chinese research ships. The same flight tracked three China Coast Guard ships, five maritime militia vessels and a Chinese navy warship nearby.

Beijing's account

China's military has offered its own version of events. The People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command claimed that its naval and air forces carried out combat-readiness patrols in the sea and airspace around the shoal on 30 October and had stepped up such patrols since early October, describing them as a response to what it called Philippine provocations. The China Coast Guard said it ran law enforcement patrols there the same day. The Defense Post said these claims could not be independently verified.

Why it matters

The monthly figures show that Chinese pressure on Philippine-claimed features remains heaviest at Scarborough Shoal, where Beijing has both coast guard and navy ships on station and where an unexplained craft is now operating inside the lagoon. The drop from September does not change the pattern of a standing Chinese military and coast guard presence across the features Manila regards as its own.