Chris Smith: “I wish to underscore my strong support of H. Res. 837 introduced by Mr. Moylan, our colleague from Guam, on Reaffirming…”

“I wish to underscore my strong support of H. Res. 837 introduced by Mr. Moylan, our colleague from Guam, on Reaffirming Ties Between the United States and the Philippines. It is both timely and critical, as we see the People's Liberation Army Navy and the Chinese Coast Guard intrude on Philippines territorial waters and engage in increasingly belligerent and lawless behavior. My one quibble with the Resolution is the continued use of the term ``South China Sea'' to refer to that term for the sea west of the Philippines. Why not ``West Philippines Sea,'' an important semantic change that rejects the PRC's claims on Philippines territory and reinforces the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitral panel ruling that the PRC's maritime territorial claims have no basis? Indeed, even the term in Chinese makes no explicit reference to China. It is simply ``South Sea.'' We have seen repeated aggression by PLA naval and coast guard vessels in the West Philippines Sea. We routinely see Filipino fishing boats harassed and surrounded by a flotilla of navy and coast guard vessels. There was also an incident this past summer where a Chinese coast guard vessel engaged in a piratical ramming attack against Filipino vessels. Eight Filipino sailors were injured, including one who lost his thumb. The PLA Navy is playing a dangerous escalation game. A war was once fought over a sailor's severed ear--1739's War of Jenkins' Ear.…”