MANILA, Philippines. The United States has raised apprehensions regarding major land reclamation projects in Manila Bay, adjacent to its heavily fortified embassy, due to the participation of a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday.
Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay stated that the U.S. government has conveyed concerns about the potential environmental repercussions of the reclamations in Manila Bay during discussions with Philippine officials.
Protests led by environmental groups have erupted against these government-approved reclamation projects, primarily driven by real estate companies aiming to construct islands for upscale hotels, casinos, restaurants, and entertainment centers in a bay historically marred by pollution. Critics also fear that constructing high-rise buildings on reclaimed land would obstruct the view of Manila Bay’s famous sunset for ordinary citizens.
In the statement, Gangopadhyay said, “We have expressed concerns about the potential negative long-term and irreversible impacts on the environment, the vulnerability to natural disasters of Manila and nearby areas, and on commerce.”
Moreover, the U.S. expressed unease about the projects’ links to China Communications Construction Co., which has been added to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List due to its involvement in assisting the Chinese military in constructing and militarizing artificial islands in the South China Sea.
As of now, there has been no immediate response from Chinese government officials regarding these concerns.
Companies placed on the U.S. Entity List are subject to restrictions on trading with American firms unless they obtain a special license, which is extremely difficult to obtain. China views these U.S. sanctions as illegal and has protested against them.
China Communications Construction Co., a state-owned enterprise, has disclosed that one of its subsidiaries, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd., is involved in a project aiming to build three artificial islands in the bay near suburban Pasay city in the capital region.
Antonio Carpio, a retired Philippine Supreme Court Justice and a vocal critic of China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea, argued that Chinese companies involved in extensive dredging and land reclamations to build China’s islands in waters where the Philippines’ sovereign rights have been upheld in an international arbitration ruling should be banned from conducting business in the Philippines.
“They clearly violated Philippine environmental laws,” Carpio stated in an interview with The Associated Press. “Worse, they helped China seize Philippine island territories and maritime zones.”
In 2016, an arbitration tribunal established in The Hague under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea invalidated China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea based on historical grounds. However, China refused to participate in the arbitration and dismissed the ruling, continuing to defy it.
While the U.S. does not claim territorial rights in the South China Sea, it has emphasized the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight in the strategic passage, which handles a significant portion of global trade, and the peaceful resolution of the long-standing disputes for U.S. national interest.
China’s transformation of at least seven disputed reefs into missile-protected island bases over the past decade has raised alarm among the U.S., its allies, and rival claimant states, further escalating tensions in a region historically regarded as an Asian flashpoint.
The ongoing territorial disputes have become a sensitive front in the rivalry between the U.S. and China. In response to China’s expansive territorial claims, U.S. warships and fighter jets have conducted patrols in the contested waters, often eliciting Chinese warnings to halt their interference or face unspecified punitive measures.
AP has contributed to this report.
