China Fabricating History to Claim Philippine Islands, Assert Control Over First Island Chain, Taiwan Warns

China is employing a strategy of fabricating historical claims to assert sovereignty over territories, including the Philippines' northernmost Batan Island, according to Taiwanese national security officials. This tactic, described as a "legal warfare" approach, is seen as a core component of Beijing's broader objective to control the first island chain, a strategic maritime area that includes Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.

Taiwanese security sources point to recent Chinese claims that Batan Island has historically belonged to China. They assert that this narrative is false and mirrors Beijing's long-standing methods used against Taiwan and Japan's Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa). The strategy, officials explain, begins with creating a "legal narrative" through fabricated history and purported legal justifications. This is followed by cognitive warfare operations and an escalating "gray zone" maritime presence aimed at pressuring neighboring nations into submission.

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China's approach is to make its delusions into established facts.

This "legal war" is closely synchronized with military intimidation. In June and July, Chinese coast guard vessels were reported to have intruded into Taiwan's and Japan's exclusive economic zones, broadcasting warnings to passing merchant ships. Security agencies have tracked over 110 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels operating around the first island chain, a number described as the highest since World War II. The recent test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile by China, which flew over the Philippines, is also seen as a significant provocation.

Officials draw parallels between the Batan Island claims and China's past assertions regarding the Ryukyu Islands. They note that Beijing published articles questioning Ryukyu's status in 2013 and that President Xi Jinping specifically mentioned historical archives related to the islands in 2023. This pattern, they argue, involves reinterpreting history and treaties through state-sponsored scholars and media, then backing it with coast guard "enforcement" and missile tests to coerce regional states. Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General, Wellington Koo, has warned that China is incrementally expanding its influence through low-threshold actions, aiming to create an irreversible "new normal" in waters east of Taiwan and potentially transform the first island chain into a "single theater of operations."

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China is incrementally expanding its influence, constantly advancing through means below the threshold of war, attempting to shape the waters east of Taiwan into an irreversible 'new normal,' and even forcing the first island chain to transform into a connected 'single theater of operations,' while threatening Japan and the Philippines.