Did US and China engage in electronic warfare in the South China Sea?

A claim emerged in Chinese-language media that American and Chinese ships recently engaged in intense electronic warfare for more than 12 hours in the South China Sea, causing internet outages and GPS disruption in the north of the Philippines.

However, the claim lacks evidence. There are no official or credible reports to back it up. Experts told AFCL that the details cited by Chinese-language media do not match real electronic warfare scenarios.

The claim was shared in a report published by Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News on July 8, 2024.

“Recently, the media in Taiwan and the Philippines have been reporting a news story that the U.S. and China have been engaged in a 12-hour electronic confrontation in the South China Sea, and that the US forces have lost the battle,” the claim reads in part.

“During this period, GPS in the northern part of the Philippines was completely cut off, and all communications, including telephone and television signals, were seriously affected,” it reads further. 

Similar claims have been shared on other Chinese-language media reports here, here and here.

But the claim lacks evidence.

Origin of the claim

Many Chinese media outlets, which circulated the claim, cited either “online users” or” Taiwanese media outlets”.

However, keyword searches show that some Taiwanese media outlets cited “media reports from the Philippines” to back the claim.

Keyword searches found no official or credible reports to back the claim. 

The earliest media report that contains this claim is from China’s Netease, which was published on June 30.

The Neteast report cited “media reports from the Philippines” and “foreign media outlets” as evidence for the claim, without identifying the outlets. 

Power outages

Gao Zhirong, an assistant researcher at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, said that the details cited by Chinese-language media do not match real electronic warfare scenarios. Such operations typically target enemy telecommunications equipment and radar, not civilian internet.

“There’s no way to mess with the internet, other than to send some people to cut the undersea cables,” he said. 

Gao added that the reported location of the clash is too far from northern Philippines for the jamming effects to have likely caused any disruption there.

“You’d need a whole lot of power for that, which was unlikely to be reached,” he says.

Unlikely scenario

Chinese-language media reports claimed that after a Chinese vessel recovered a sonar buoy dropped by a U.S. P8A anti-submarine aircraft in the South China Sea, both sides dispatched several electronic warfare aircraft to the area. 

They further claimed that the U.S. military sent Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft and Boeing RC-135 strategic reconnaissance planes, while China dispatched Shaanxi Y-9 warplanes and Type 815 surveillance ships.

But Richard Fisher, a senior researcher at the International Assessment and Strategy Center told AFCL that it was unlikely the U.S. military would engage in a large-scale electronic war to protect sonar buoys. 

The primary purpose of the EA-18G Growler is to attack and disrupt electronic combat systems, such as radar and missile guidance, said Fisher, adding that jamming GPS signals is only a secondary function of the aircraft.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.