Dispatch from Manila: On the frontlines of the ‘gray zone’ conflict with China

Markus Garlauskas

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Chinese vessels have repeatedly threatened and rammed Philippine vessels within the internationally recognized Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines to assert China’s excessive maritime claims, most recently on August 31. As a result, for the leaders of the Philippines, China’s aggression is not in some shadowy, ill-defined “gray zone”—it is a real and constant series of attacks on their people and sovereignty. As General Romeo Brawner, Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told us on August 27 in Manila: China’s activities are “ICAD”—illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive. Brawner urged the United States and like-minded countries in the region to see these attacks as not just the Philippines’ fight, but their fight as well.

Brawner was speaking to participants of the US Indo-Pacific Command’s international Military Operations and Law (MILOPS) conference at the historic Manila Hotel, just days before the August 31 ramming. Brawner’s remarks followed those of Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro, Jr., as part of a panel including US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson and Admiral Samuel Paparo, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command. The conference also included top military lawyers, operational officers, and nongovernment national security experts from nearly thirty countries across the Indo-Pacific.