{"id":1344,"date":"2024-09-15T13:14:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T13:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2024-09-15T13:14:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T13:14:47","slug":"south-china-sea-philippines-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Risky Power Play in the South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China\u2019s coast guard ships have swarmed and collided with Philippine boats. They have doused Philippine vessels with powerful water cannons. Chinese crew members have slashed inflatable crafts, blared sirens and flashed high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.<\/p>\n
As China pushes to dominate the South China Sea, it is increasingly willing to use force to drive out the Philippines, a treaty ally of the United States. In recent months, China\u2019s tactics have damaged Philippine boats and injured personnel, and raised fears of a superpower showdown in the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n
A New Flashpoint<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
For months, the latest target of China\u2019s power play was a Philippine coast guard ship, the Teresa Magbanua. The video above was taken by the crew of that ship, as a Chinese coast guard vessel collided into it late last month.<\/p>\n
The episode was one of four confrontations between the two countries\u2019 vessels, in just two weeks. The encounters were not only becoming more frequent, but they were also taking place in a new location \u2014 Sabina Shoal, a resource-rich atoll close to the Philippine mainland.<\/p>\n
The two countries had in earlier months been facing off near another atoll in the disputed Spratly Islands, the Second Thomas Shoal, where Chinese ships regularly harass Philippine boats trying to resupply sailors stationed on a beached warship. Now, their feud has expanded.<\/p>\n\n
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These are the places where China has confronted the Philippines since 2023.<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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Confrontations involving collisions and the use of water cannons and other tools<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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Note: Incident locations are approximated from locations broadcasted by the Philippine and Chinese coast guard vessels. Other tools include lasers, knives, axes, and rocks.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
The Philippines wants to control Sabina Shoal, an unoccupied atoll inside its exclusive economic zone. Sabina Shoal, which lies just 86 miles west of the Philippine province of Palawan and over 600 miles from China, is near an area rich in oil deposits, and on routes Manila considers crucial for trade and security.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hostile China would be able to strangle our maritime trade with the rest of Asia and most of the world from Sabina Shoal,\u201d said Jay Batongbacal, a maritime security expert at the University of the Philippines. Sabina Shoal would make \u201ca good staging ground for vessels that will interfere with Philippine maritime activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Manila anchored the Teresa Magbanua, one of its largest coast guard ships, at the Sabina Shoal in April to try to stop China from what the Philippines sees as efforts to try to build an island there.<\/p>\n
The Philippine Coast Guard has pointed to piles of crushed and dead corals apparently dumped on the shoal as signs of Chinese land reclamation under way. China has denied the accusation. But the building and fortifying of artificial islands is a key part of how China has asserted its claims over contested waters hundreds of miles from its coast.<\/p>\n
China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, says its tactics are needed to defend its sovereignty. Beijing has rejected a ruling by an international tribunal in 2016 that China\u2019s sweeping claim to the waters had no legal basis.<\/p>\n