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Photo taken in Da Ba Dau in mid-December 2020 shows the boats anchored close together, with an average width of about 10 meters each – Photo: Simularity
Newspaper The Philippine star On March 26, he headlined a 20-page report by Simularity Technology Company (US) that a large number of Chinese ships “anchored, arrived and departed” at Da Ba Dau since mid-December last year.
Satellite images on December 13 and 14 showed many Chinese ships, including orange ones, moored together, forming a horizontal row about 200 meters long. “With an average width of 10 meters each, it is a set of 20 boats. With this shape, fishing is impossible,” the report wrote.
Simularity also posted a lot of satellite images in January, February, and March 2021 after that for comparison. For example, on March 23 and 24, 2021, Simularity counted around 200 boats in Da Ba Dau, of which “most could be fishing boats and some could be Chinese boats. These boats are controlled by the PLA.”
“We have seen these fleets come and go in Ba Dau Rock for months,” Liz Derr, CEO of Simularity Technology Company, told the environmental science news site. Mongabay.
She said: “The number of boats varies from day to day. Some boats come and go. However, the number of boats that we are seeing today in Da Ba Dau is the same as the number of boats that we see that are anchored in that in December of last year. “
CEO Simularity said that based on satellite images, it can be seen that these boats have no fishing activity and are not moving significantly, but are only anchored at Ba Dau Rock.
The Chinese side said that the boats that appeared in Da Ba Dau were only fishing boats, while the Philippines considered these boats to be Chinese marine militia boats.
The ships appeared in large numbers at Ba Dau Stone on December 14, 2020 and March 19, 2021 – Photo: Simularity
Last weekend, Chancellor Teodoro Locsin Jr. the Philippines had sent protests to China after the Philippine National Task Force in the West Sea (what the Philippines called the South China Sea) confirmed that around 220 ships believed to be controlled by Chinese maritime militias appeared in Ba Na Early on 7-3. -2021.
Whitsun Reef (English name: Whitsun Reef) is a V-shaped coral reef belonging to the Sinh Ton group in the Spratlys archipelago under the sovereignty of Vietnam.
China said ships from above entered the Ba Dau Rock shelter due to “bad weather conditions” at sea. However, Philippine media and experts said there were no storms in the Ba Dau Rock area at the time, it was still sunny and cloudy.
Former Vice President of the Philippine Supreme Court Antonio Carpio said this is not the first time that many Chinese ships have appeared on the Ba Dau stone. Around March of last year, there were also “hundreds” of Chinese ships present here.
At a press conference on March 25, Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thu Hang stated that the operation of Chinese ships within the Sinh Ton Dong territorial sea, belonging to the Spratly Islands of Vietnam, had infringed the sovereignty of Vietnam.
Closeup of Chinese ship formation at Ba Dau Stone
