The Chinese side announced"Send troops", large-scale fighter sorties, the West shouted to bully the weak!
As we all know, the Philippines, a country located in Southeast Asia, maintains close contacts with China. In order to maintain friendly relations between China and the Philippines, China has not only allowed Philippine fruits to enter the Chinese market, but also actively participated in and cooperated in a number of infrastructure projects, providing strong support for the economic development of the Philippines. However, despite China's goodwill assistance, the Philippines has developed contradictions and conflicts with China on a number of issues. Recently, the Philippines canceled a $10 billion airport renovation project in which Chinese companies participated, causing us huge losses. So why did the Philippines suddenly have a dispute with China?
In fact, decades ago, China and the Philippines established friendly relations and provided a lot of support for the Philippine economy. However, since the Philippines leaned towards the United States, there have been differences in China-Philippines relations, especially on the South China Sea issue, and the Philippines has often had friction with China, and even filed lawsuits with international tribunals in an attempt to seize China's territorial sovereignty, which is very disappointing. In particular, after the new Marcos Jr. took office in the Philippines, relations between China and the Philippines deteriorated sharply, and even conducted joint patrols in the South China Sea with many countries, including the United States and Australia. Just after the U.S.-Philippines South China Sea cruise, the Philippines quickly conducted its first joint air and sea patrol with Australia.
The joint Philippine-Australian maritime patrol, which extends from Palawan to Second Thomas Shoal, is clearly a provocation to China. However, the South China Sea is, after all, China's territory, not a place to enter and exit at will. The Philippines and Australia upgraded their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in September, and the joint maritime patrol is clearly gaining traction. The Philippines dispatched two sea-leading boats, the USS Gregorio del Pilar and the USS Davao Sur, as well as A-29 "Super Tucano" attack aircraftAustralia, for its part, sent the missile frigate Ba and a P-8A maritime reconnaissance plane, which had crossed the Taiwan Strait a few days ago to attract attention.
At the same time, the US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Hopper illegally entered China's territorial waters in Xisha Islands, but was directly warned and driven away by the PLA's Southern Theater. It is worth noting that the Philippines was "tracked" by two Chinese warplanes when it claimed to be conducting a "patrol" in the South China Sea. It should be emphasized that the so-called patrol sites of the Philippines are located within the jurisdiction of Sansha City, Hainan Province, China, and are all inherent territory of China. Why can't China take action to expel them?
However, the Philippines chose to accuse China of "bullying the small" and complained that only Philippine fighters were "detoured", while Australian fighters were not treated in the same way. Under such circumstances, China did not bully the small, let alone take offensive actions. It is incomprehensible that the Philippines has not repented, but has taken the opportunity to complain. Perhaps, this conflict between the Philippines and Australia will trigger more follow-up actions in the future, after all, provocations will eventually come at a cost.