China’s deployment of more than 200 vessels to the Sinh Ton island in Truong Sa Archipelago of Vietnam’s sovereignty marked a worrisome escalation in the East Sea. Various countries have expressed concerns and asked China to remove the vessels and stop the provocation.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said the Chinese vessels’ activities within the Truong Sa Archipelago violated Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, countered the spirit and content of the Declaration on Conducts of Parties in the East Sea, and complicated the situation without benefiting negotiation for the Code of Conducts of Parties in the East Sea.

The Philippine foreign ministry has filed a diplomatic protest, saying that the move caused instability and showed China’s ignorance of commitments in fostering peace and stability in the region.

During a meeting with Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi who visited Japan on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga expressed deep concern about the Chinese moves, including the new China Coast Guard Law and emphasized the importance of maintaining open and free maritime order based on the international law.  

The Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines, Koshikawa Kazuhiko, has twitted “The South China Sea issues are directly related to peace & stability and a concern for all. Japan strongly opposes any action that heightens tensions. We support the enforcement of the rule of law in the sea and work with the int'l community to protect the free, open, and peaceful seas.”

Australia has condemned the escalation of tension in the international maritime route, where countries must respect the rule of law.

Gregory B. Poling, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS, commented that the Chinese activities are suspicious and the vessels were there to serve military purposes, rather than fishing.