Coral Securitisation: the role of environmental security in the South China Sea in the asymmetrical relationship between China and the Philippines

Abstract

This research analyzes how China and the Philippines instrumentalize coral reef degradation in the South China Sea, utilizing the environmental agenda in their security discourses within the context of an asymmetrical relationship. Drawing on a theoretical framework that articulates the concept of securitization with environmental security studies, the work performs a qualitative documentary analysis of official discourses and reports from both sides. It is argued that the environmental issue is rhetorically framed as a security threat to legitimize strategic interests, converting ecological vulnerability into a political resource in the dispute for regional dominance. The results evidence that the degradation in Sabina Shoal has ceased to be treated as an ecological crisis to become a vector of mutual accusation and narrative construction. It is observed that the narrative conflict operates through an “inversion of causality”: while China projects an image of authority and sovereign stewardship to justify the demand for the adversary’s withdrawal, the Philippines resorts to the external validation of International Law to denounce damages and warn about territorial loss.