Chinese who ruined Phl reefs still raking in govt projects

America has blacklisted the China state firms that concreted and helped militarize Philippine reefs. In the Philippines those malefactors continue to bag juicy government contracts.

China Communications Construction Company and 24 subsidiaries were banned from dealing with US businesses. Persons linked to CCCC and their family members will be denied US visas. The US State department said they are “responsible for, or complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, construction, or militarization of disputed outposts in the South China Sea.” As well, in China’s “use of coercion against Southeast Asian claimants to inhibit their access to offshore resources.”

State Sec. Mike Pompeo announced the sanctions Wednesday in Washington (Thursday in Manila). Briefing reporters thereafter, a State official mentioned The Hague court ruling in 2016 that outlawed China’s unfounded “nine-dash line” claim over the entire SCS.

Cited was the Philippines’ Mischief Reef among the sea features that China has concreted into island fortresses. Mischief and two other Philippine reefs, Subi and Fiery Cross, have been fitted with missile silos, airstrips, and naval bases. Four others – Hughes, Johnson South, Gaven and Cuarteron Reefs, have also been cordoned off. All are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf.

About 1.9 million kilos of fish are killed per year due to China’s reef ruin. Lost too are resources like precious metals and new medicines. Citing international conservation standards, Filipino marine scientists conservatively estimate the damage at P231.7 billion in the seven years that China has occupied the reefs. From Mischief, Chinese gunboats menace Filipino exploration vessels in oil- and gas-rich Recto Bank, also in Philippine EEZ.

“Since 2013 China has used its state-owned enterprises to dredge and reclaim more than 3,000 acres on disputed features in the SCS – destabilizing the region, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbors, and causing untold environmental devastation,” Pompeo said.

“CCCC led the destructive dredging of China’s SCS outposts and is also one of the leading contractors used by Beijing in its global One Belt-One Road strategy,” he added. “CCCC and its subsidiaries have engaged in corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses across the world. China must not be allowed to use CCCC and other state-owned enterprises as weapons to impose an expansionist agenda.”

CCCC and subsidiaries are involved in or eyeing several of the Philippine government’s P8.4-trillion “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure projects. Among those are reclamations, piers, shipbuilding facilities, industrial parks, and a power plant in Davao City. As well, the Mindanao railway in that city and Davao region, President Duterte’s political home base.

Subsidiaries CCCC Dredging Company and China Harbour Engineering Company have been reported in reclamations, dredgings, and port works in the Visayas.

In Luzon last December, CCCC was awarded the contract to dredge, reclaim, and construct an airport in Sangley, Cavite, as alternative to the Manila International Airport. It was also mentioned in a Manila Bay reclamation plan.

Another subsidiary, China Road and Bridge Company, is building a span across Pasig River for free. To do it, the company demolished a newly finished one between Makati and Mandaluyong Cities.

That company also plans another bridge from Binondo to Intramuros, Manila. Conservationists oppose the project that will ruin historical and heritage sites like Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, and parts of the Spanish-era walled city.

In 2011 the World Bank banned CCCC and all subsidiaries from its road and bridge works in the Philippines. The international development funder discovered rigged biddings among them, and bribery to collect fees despite punishable work delays. Specifically mentioned for shoddy work style was China Road and Bridge Company.

CCCC is implicated in Kenya’s controversial multibillion-dollar “Railway to Nowhere”. Recently a court declared illegal the Kenyan government’s deal with China Road and Bridge Company.

CCCC also built the seaport that China took over under a 99-year lease when Sri Lanka defaulted on stiff repayment terms.

The new US sanctions followed Pompeo’s rejection last month of China’s claims beyond the 12-mile territorial area around the Spratly Islands. That statement cited Beijing’s aggression in the waters of Vanguard Bank, Vietnam; Luconia Shoals off Malaysia; the area within Brunei’s exclusive economic zone; and Indonesia’s Natuna Besar Island.

In the new statement Pompeo said: “The US will act until we see Beijing discontinue its coercive behavior in the SCS, and we will continue to stand with allies and partners in resisting this destabilizing activity.”

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