Attention AP Style Guide: start using the 'West Philippine Sea' for global hot spot

What was historically rich fishing grounds for Filipino fishers, Scarborough Shoal
  was turned into a military base for China with a harbor and airport strip.

OPINION

It’s time for the American media to stop doing Beijing’s PR and start calling the West Philippine Sea by its rightful name.

For years, newsrooms from Midtown to Mountain View have leaned on the "South China Sea" as a default. But as the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) just confirmed with its latest official maps, this isn't just about water; it's about sovereignty and international law.

Words matter

Here is why the AP Style Guide, the "bible" for a majority of news outlets in the US, needs to catch up with the rapidly deteriorating situation in the waters between the Philippines and the Peoples Republic of China.

In the world of "gray zone" tactics, names matter. Using "South China Sea" for the waters within Manila’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) unwittingly endorses China’s debunked "nine-dash line," which claims 90% of the body of ocean. By adopting "West Philippine Sea," American news outlets could properly align their reporting with the 2016 Arbitral Award, which legally shredded Beijing’s historical claims.

The Philippine Maritime Zones Act isn't just local politics; it’s a codification of UNCLOS principles. When the Philippine Coast Guard reports a water-cannoning incident at Bajo de Masinloc, calling it the "South China Sea" muddies the fact that the aggression is happening inside recognized Philippine territory.

It’s high time American media start talking about the brewing storm in the Pacific that most folks back home couldn’t find on a map if their lives depended on it. While the nightly news remains obsessed with Ukraine, Iran, Greenland andTaiwan, a much more volatile fuse is burning in the sea between China  and the Philippines. Vietnam and Malaysia also lay claims that challenge the PRC's  flaunting of international rule. 

We’re talking about the Philippines and China, and let’s be clear: this isn’t just a "dispute" over some rocks and water. It’s a David-and-Goliath struggle where David is backed by a US Mutual Defense Treaty that could pull American sailors and pilots into a shooting war faster than you can say "freedom of navigation."

The channel between China and the Philippines is one of the most critical arteries for global commerce, functioning as a primary link between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Approximately 24% to 33% of all global maritime trade transits these waters annually. Estimates of the value of goods passing through the sea range from $3.4 trillion to $5.3 trillion per year -- with a vessel density 1.5 times that of the Mediterranean and 7.5 times that of the Caribbean.

Just short of war

The level of aggression we’re seeing from Beijing lately has moved past simple posturing and into the realm of the truly egregious. We’ve watched as Chinese Coast Guard vessels—which are essentially gray-hull warships painted white for PR—have intentionally rammed tiny Philippine wooden resupply boats, shattering hulls and putting sailors' lives at risk. Perhaps most disturbing is the calculated use of high-pressure water cannons, which have been turned on Philippine crews with enough force to tear metal off ships and cause serious injuries to personnel.

In one of the most chilling displays of "might makes right," Chinese personnel have even been seen brandishing axes and knives during boardings, physically intimidating Philippine troops who are just trying to bring food and water to their outposts.

The reality on the ground — or on the water, rather — is a masterclass in "gray zone" warfare. By using these brutal tactics just shy of actual gunfire, Beijing is betting that they can bully Manila into submission without triggering the tripwire that brings the U.S. Seventh Fleet into the fray. But that’s a dangerous gamble to take under the unpredictable Trump regime which doesn't hesitate to use the Big Stick in other parts of the world, ie the Middle East and Venezuela.

Chinese vessels  often use water cannons to intimidate the Philippines Coast Guard vessel.

When you start swinging axes and ramming ships in the middle of the ocean, the margin for error disappears. One mistake, one dead sailor, or one panicked trigger finger is all it takes for a localized scuffle to turn into a global catastrophe. We might be looking the other way right now, but the Edge is getting narrower by the day.

View from the Edge

Unlike Donald Trump's attempt to change the name the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the West Philippine Sea is a recognized body of water. China's claim to the sea and atolls hundreds of miles from its coast is a case of geographic overreach and the US media, in particular, should pay more attention to this part of the world where some say is a tinderbox waiting for a spark.

If the US is serious about a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific," our media shouldn't be using the nomenclature of the aggressor. We don't call the Gulf of Mexico the "South American Sea," and we shouldn't let China dictate the geography of a sovereign ally.

Trump and War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth have reaffirmed  the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and reassured that the pact is active, ironclad and central to regional security obligating both nations to defend against external armed attacks. It remains robust amid rising Philippine-China tensions, reinforced by the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) allowing rotational U.S. troop presence.

Thus far, the US has avoided direct contact with PRC ships and aircraft, but China continues to harass and intimidate the vessels of Philippine Coast Guard and Filipino fishers. The US Navy has countered China's bullying with shows of strength of its own by sailing numerous US warships through the disputed channel, which could be interpreted as a dare to PRC military.

The AP Style Guide often uses the broader term South China Sea for geographic context while attributing the "West Philippine Sea" label when reporting on Philippine government positions and acknowledges the latter term is part of the greater body of the former term. According to the AP Style Guide, the "West Philippine Sea" term refers specifically to the portion of the South China Sea that falls within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

However, most US news outlets do not make that distinction even when the conflicts clearly occur in the EEZ including Scarborough Shoal where China has militarized the atoll with an airport and harbor, and the Spratley islands, where most of the Chinese oceanic bullying occurs.

The Bottom Line: With the recommendation of the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) it’s time for the AP Stylebook to update its style guide: West Philippine Sea is the standard for the Philippines' maritime domain. Anything else is just drifting in Beijing's wake.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

Kamala Harris going to Asia to reassert U.S. ties to the region

Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Asia

Despite the United States' public relations disaster in Afghanistan, Asia remains a region of extreme importance to the Biden Administration.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Asian American to hold that office, leaves Washington on Friday and arrives Sunday in Singapore, where she will deliver what aides are calling a major speech laying out the future of the U.S. relationship with a region increasingly under pressure from the People's Republic of China.

After Singapore, she is scheduled to visit former U.S. foe, Vietnam.

Harris' deputy national security adviser Phil Gordon said the vice president will emphasize the Biden administration’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region, with a focus on reinforcing regional security in the area.

“The vice president will meet with government officials, leaders, people in the private sector and civil society, and she’ll focus on strengthening U.S. leadership, expanding security cooperation, deepening economic partnerships, defending the international rules-based order, in particular in the South China Sea, and standing up for our values as we do with all of our friends and partners,” he told the Associated Press.

Washington seeks to bolster international support to counter China's growing global influence. A U.S .official, speaking anonymously, said Washington saw both countries as critical partners given their locations, the size of their economies, trade ties and security partnerships on issues such as the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety.

Vietnam has been a vocal opponent of China's South China Sea claims. Countries in the region, including the Philippines and Malaysia, largely welcome the U.S. military presence there as a counterweight to China's militarization of the waterway and its vast coast guard and fishing fleets.

The visit will also be the culmination of months of American outreach to Asia, where Washington’s partners worry about China’s rising influence and notably its efforts to claim control over vast reaches of the South China Sea.

"We do not want to see any country dominate that region or take advantage of the power situation to compromise the sovereignty of others," a White House official said.

China maintains the largest military and economy in Asia and has expanded its navy over the past decade.

"The Vice President is going to underscore that there should be free passage for trade, throughout the South China Sea, and no single country should disrespect the right of others." A third of the world's global trade passes through the sea, known in the Philippines as the West Philippines Sea.

In 2016, an international tribunal in a landmark ruling dismissed Beijing’s claim to much of the South China Sea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague said on July 12, 2016 that there was no evidence that China had exercised exclusive control historically over the key waterway.

China has simply ignored the ruling and bullied its way to the establishment of military installations on the Spratly islands, which are only 100 miles off of the Philippines' Palawan island. The group of small islands is more than 1200 miles from the PRC.

The U.S. Navy has maintained a steady pattern of freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea and near Taiwan, but these appear to have done little to discourage Beijing.

Trade issues will likely dominate discussions, since the region is a major manufacturer of microchips, vital to the U.S. economy. Also, Harris will emphasize concerns about battling the coronavirus pandemic. 

While in Asia, the vice president will meet virtually with health ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and announce the opening of a regional office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Harris has “been pushing, even as we work to solve this pandemic, to get ready, get the world ready, to deal with the next one,” a second senior U.S. official said, also on the condition of anonymity.

President Biden has been sending some of his top Cabinet officials to Asia since he took office to show support for U.S. allies in the region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made their first overseas trip to Japan and South Korea. Austin traveled to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines last month where he vowed U.S. support against Beijing’s intrusions in the South China Sea.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman traveled to Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia in May and early June. Last month she visited Japan, South Korea and Mongolia before heading to China for high-level talks that ultimately did little to resolve many of the deep divisions between the two countries.