The Philippines’ defense minister has rejected recent claims by Chinese scholars that Batanes, its northernmost province, belongs to China, describing the assertions as “baseless” and “ludicrous.”
At a symposium at Jinan University on June 30, Chinese scholars from several institutions, including Nanjing University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, claimed that China enjoyed sovereignty over Batanes, a group of islands lying midway between Taiwan and the Philippines’ Luzon island.
According to a report by Jinan University, which was later published by the Guangdong-based news outlet Newsgd, participants described the Batanes Islands as a “natural geographical extension” of Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said that the comments were “probably a signal of a preconceived intention” by China’s government, which claims sovereignty over the majority of the South China Sea – including large swathes of ocean claimed by the Philippines.
“It is not far-fetched to think that this is already part of their plan. And it also validates what we have been saying that they have a plan to control the entire Pacific Ocean,” he said of the scholars’ claims, according to Reuters.
“We know this is baseless. This is nonsense. It is ludicrous,” he added. “So this is concerning, and it is something that must be challenged.” Teodoro did not specify what actions Manila might take in response.
As per the Newsgd report, the symposium was convened “in direct response” to the summit between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae in late May. During their meeting in Tokyo, the two leaders announced the launch of negotiations to delimit their exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and continental shelves in the waters east of Taiwan Island.
The Chinese scholars who attended the June 30 symposium “uniformly determined that the move constitutes a grave violation of international law and infringes upon China’s legitimate sovereignty in the waters,” Newsgd reported.
The scholars’ assertions do not indicate that Beijing has formally asserted sovereignty over Batanes, but the issue sets a potentially worrisome precedent for the Philippines.
The SeaLight project at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, which scrutinizes Chinese “gray zone” maritime activities in the South and East China seas, said that the scholars’ conclusions could help support China’s recent activities near the Bashi Channel, which separates Batanes from Taiwan’s Orchid Island and forms a strategic gap in the “first island chain.”
On June 7, four Chinese vessels sailed through the channel into the open Pacific, an operation that the state-run Global Times described as “a sovereignty declaration with both legal significance and political signaling.” This “confirms that China has indisputable jurisdiction, law enforcement authority, and management rights over Taiwan and its surrounding waters.”
SeaLight stated that Chinese government officials had not yet endorsed the symposium’s conclusions, but that this was “not unusual in PRC gray-zone narrative warfare.” It added, “For now, muddying the waters over Batanes’ legal ownership is sufficient to help justify its ‘sovereignty’ patrols.”
In a post on X, Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that the claims about Batanes were little more than the “territorial wet dreams” of Beijing-aligned scholars, but urged caution. “Before we dismiss them as fringe narrative, it’s important to caution how such ideas could potentially seep into official discourse if they fit ethno-nationalist agendas,” he wrote.
Sure enough, the state-run tabloid Global Times yesterday published its own article on the symposium, stating that China “should take corresponding actions to assert its sovereignty over the Batanes,” in light of the “evolving collusive moves between Japan and the Philippines.” It cited the scholars as saying that the China Coast Guard “should conduct regular patrols, and the military’s countermeasures need to be scaled up at opportune moments to raise deterrence.”
Even if China stops short of a formal claim of sovereignty over Batanes, putting it on the gray zone “menu” would mark a significant step up for Beijing’s pressure campaign against the Philippines. Over the past few years, this has resulted in a string of high-seas confrontations between the two nations close to Philippine-occupied features in the Spratly Islands.
While Batanes is both the smallest and least populated of the Philippines’ 82 provinces, it is still home to 18,937 people, as per the 2024 Philippine census, This compares to just 406 for the Kalayaan Island Group, as Manila refers to its nine occupied features in the Spratlys.
In its own statement, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said Manila “will not entertain revisionist claims over its territory” and urged the scholars to “focus their energies on genuine, good-faith studies of the region.”
“Flights of fancy should not be dignified with a response,” it stated. “Nevertheless, the Philippines’ sovereignty over Batanes is settled and not up for debate.”
