MANILA — China now has 23 vessels at the disputed South China Sea shoal while its rival, Taiwan, made public its claim on the contested area Wednes-day, further complicat-ing the dangerous 23-day standoff.

A group of Filipino-Americans, meanwhile, came out in public and announced planned protests in China’s em-bassies and consulates in the US and Canada on May 11 to denounce what they call Chinese aggression on Philip-pine sovereignty. A similar demonstration will also be held in Manila on the same day.

Foreign Affairs spokes-man Raul Hernandez said China has sta-tioned four Chinese government ships in the Scarborough, including Beijing’s most ad-vanced patrol craft, while eight Chinese fishing vessels were spotted inside the shoal’s lagoon, along with 11 smaller boats.

Amid an increasing Chinese presence in the area, two Philippine government ships - a coast guard vessel and a fisheries craft – stood their ground to assert Manila’s claim over the shoal, known to the country as Panatag or Bajo de Masinloc.

Hernandez also said there is no restriction for Filipino fishermen to conduct fishing activi-ties in the shoal.

“It’s our territory so Filipino fishermen can go there,” Hernandez said over dzBB radio, adding three Philippine fishing vessels are al-ready in the area.

Tensions between the Philippines and China flared starting on April 10 when Manila accused Chinese fishermen of intruding and poaching at Scarborough, which it claims fall within its 200 nautical mile Ex-clusive Economic Zone or EEZ. Two Chinese government ships, how-ever prevented a Philip-pine navy ship from ar-resting the Chinese fishermen.

The shoal lies 124 nautical miles from Zambales province and 472 nautical miles from China’s nearest land-mass of Hainan prov-ince. DMS