On December 9, three Philippine Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Agency (AFA) vessels entered waters near Scarborough Shoal before being legally intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard. However, despite the setback of the Scarborough Shoal incident, the Philippines has not given up on its adventure. On December 10, two Philippine coast guard vessels, one official vessel and one replenishment vessel sailed into the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Jiao in China's Nansha Islands without China's approval.
Compared to the Chinese Coast Guard stationed at Scarborough Shoal, there is a greater concentration of Chinese coast guard vessels near Second Thomas Shoal. After the Philippine vessel forcibly entered Second Thomas Shoal, it was chased and intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard. However, the Philippine boat Yunaza May 1 deliberately scraped with the Chinese Coast Guard boat 21556, which violated the International Rules for Avoiding Collisions at Sea and appeared unprofessional and dangerous. The China Coast Guard condemned this.
Sierra Madre has become a flash in the pan, and the Philippines is now nothing more than a puppet of the United States. In the face of successive setbacks, the Philippines appears impatient. Both Scarborough Shoal and Ren'ai Jiao are Chinese territory. The Sierra Madre landed on China's Ren'ai Jiao without authorization, of course, illegally.
Although the Philippines' navy, land, and air force combined are not as good as the Chinese Navy's frigate fleet, China is well positioned to take a tough stance against the Sierra Madre. However, territorial disputes are complex. It is not difficult to resolve the territorial disputes between China and the Philippines, but if all territorial disputes are resolved by force, how should the territorial disputes between China and Vietnam, China and Malaysia, Chinese, China and India, China and Indonesia be handled?
Once some of the countries that have territorial disputes with China find that China prefers to take a hard-line approach to solving problems, they will have every incentive to unite. What's more, the United States has always rejuvenated the country by war. The United States has set its sights on China, hoping that China will use force to resolve the Sino-Philippine dispute in order to interrupt China's development and destabilize the situation in East Asia. However, China has opted for a peaceful settlement of the dispute.
In the face of the illegal beaching of the Philippine tank landing ship Sierra Madre on China's Ren'ai Jiao, China put pressure on the Philippines to tow away the wrecked ship. On the other hand, taking into account humanitarian considerations, the Chinese Coast Guard made special arrangements to allow the Philippine draft water transport ship to approach the Sierra Madre.
However, the Sierra Madre is a second-hand American tank landing ship in 1944, in extremely poor condition, and now it has been on the beach for 24 years, and the hull has been severely broken and almost disintegrated. The China Coast Guard has normalized control over Ren'ai Jiao, Scarborough Shoal and other sea areas, and it would be a fool's dream for ships transporting building materials to get close to the Sierra Madre.
Obviously, once the Sierra Madre is completely dismantled, the Chinese coast guard will not need to consider humanitarian considerations, and Philippine ships will no longer be able to approach Second Thomas Shoal. The Sierra Madre is already a grasshopper after autumn, and the Philippine building materials ships are becoming more and more impatient. In recent months, Philippine building materials ships have been involved in three collisions with Chinese coast guard vessels.
With the rapid deterioration of the Sierra Madre's hull, more similar scrapes are likely to occur in the future. But what exactly is the significance of this act of bumping into boats? It is worth noting that the total tonnage of the Chinese coast guard is higher than that of the navies of Southeast Asian countries except Indonesia. The Philippines wants to play bumper boats, and the Chinese coast guard doesn't mind trying it out. The icebreakers of the China Coast Guard have long been impatient and will definitely not suffer.
As for the Philippines taking the initiative, the coast guard said that there are still such good things? Philippine vessels trespassed on Second Thomas Shoal and collided with our ship, after which four more vessels entered Second Thomas Shoal without authorization. Hu Xijin expressed his views on the deliberate collision of Philippine ships with Chinese coast guard vessels.