The cruise that will get you chased by the Chinese coastguard

By Sue-Lin Wong

My holiday to the Philippines started with a post I found on Facebook. “TRAVEL LIKE NO OTHER”, it exhorted. “The Kalayaan Island Group boasts the most unspoilt destinations in the country. Whether you are travelling for adventure or curiosity, the Spratlys will not disappoint.”

I was intrigued. The Spratly Islands are in the middle of the South China Sea, one of the most contested waterways in the world. Six governments have laid claim to this scattered, rocky archipelago and the surrounding sea. China has sought to intimidate its rivals by populating the region with navy, coastguard and militia vessels, as well as drones. The Philippines, the primary target of China’s aggression, lacks such military might and has taken a softer approach to asserting its own claims. It hopes to persuade the world that Pag-asa, known internationally as Thitu – one of the nine outcrops in the sea it considers its own, and the only Spratly with a civilian population – is capable of sustaining a thriving community. By subsidising the lives of Pag-asa’s residents, and developing the island’s nascent tourism industry, the Philippine government is trying to make it harder for the Chinese to muscle their country out of the South China Sea.