China research ship crew tells PCG: We’re going fishing in Indian Ocean

MANILA, Philippines — The Chinese research vessel Song Hang, which is suspected of gathering intelligence data in Philippine waters, told the crew of a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship sent to challenge it that it was going fishing in the Indian Ocean.

As of Thursday noon, Song Hang remains in Philippine waters, with PCG spokesperson on the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela saying it was spotted about 66 kilometers off Mapun Island in Tawi-Tawi province in the Sulu Sea.

Tarriela said the PCG had dispatched on Wednesday the 44-meter BRP Malapascua to challenge the presence of the 85-meter Chinese vessel.

The Malapascua reported that Song Hang’s crew said they were only transiting through the Sibutu Passage en route to the Indian Ocean, Tarriela said in a post on X.

On Thursday morning, the PCG issued another radio challenge to verify Song Hang’s intentions, but Tarriela said the crew only “reiterated their destination as the Indian Ocean, adding that their purpose is to conduct fishing activities there.”

Movements tracked

The PCG, he added, “remains vigilant in safeguarding the nation’s maritime domain and will continue to monitor the movements of the Song Hang as it exits the Sibutu Passage.”

At a Palace briefing, National Security Council spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the PCG has been monitoring Song Hang “to ensure that it keeps to its track and it does not conduct maritime survey inside our waters because although ships have [the] right of innocent passage, no foreign vessel can conduct maritime survey in our waters.”

“So the Philippine Coast Guard is being vigilant; they are continuously doing maritime patrols to ensure that this does not happen,” Malaya added.

US maritime expert Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, a program of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation that keeps track of Chinese activities in the West Philippine Sea, told the Inquirer on Wednesday that the Song Hang entered the country’s exclusive economic zone north of Luzon on March 29.

It left Shanghai, China, on March 26, he added.

“The Song Hang is considered a fisheries research vessel, but we generally assume all [People’s Republic of China] survey ships are dual-purpose and can collect intelligence for the People’s Liberation Army,” Powell said.

READ: China arrests three Filipinos suspected of spying

Under the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act signed by President Marcos in November 2024, foreign ships or aircraft, including marine scientific research or survey ships, should not conduct oceanographic or hydrographic surveys or any other research or survey activities “unless they have obtained prior permission from the appropriate [Philippine] agency.”

 

(2025/04/04-05:42)