Philippine Navy Commander Vice Admiral Adhachi landed on Thitu Island on February 23 to inspect Philippine military units stationed on the island, Philippine News Agency reported.
At the same time, Philippine Navy spokesman Roy Trinidad said in an interview that Thitu Island is now open to Filipino nationals and welcomes Filipino tourists to visit the island.
Are you confused as to why the Philippine Navy encourages people to travel to Thitu Island? Is there a conspiracy behind this? What does it have to do with our country? Thitu Island is China's inherent territory, located in the middle of the Thitu Reef of the Nansha Islands, and is the second natural island of the Nansha Islands, with an area of about 04 square kilometers, illegally occupied by the Philippines.
As early as the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Thitu Island was inhabited by Chinese fishermen, and there are still wells left by Chinese fishermen on the island.
In 1971, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops occupied Thitu Island in the Spratlys. However, the Philippines took advantage of a typhoon that had not been seen for many years and sent troops to occupy the island.
After the Kuomintang troops found that Thitu Island was occupied, although there were not many fortifications and defenders on the island, Chiang Kai-shek did not order the forcible recapture of Thitu Island because of his concern with the United States, which eventually led to Thitu Island becoming the de facto control area of the Philippines.
Thitu Island is located at the southern tip of the Nansha Islands and is of great strategic significance. The vicinity of the island is not only rich in fishery resources, but also extremely rich in oil and gas reserves, which are said to be about 12.6 billion tons to 13.7 billion tons in the Zengmu Shoal Basin alone.
In addition, Thitu Island is also rich in fresh water resources. Despite the illegal occupation of the island, the Philippines not only built a large airport and stationed soldiers here all year round, but also built a kindergarten on the island.
In recent years, the Philippines has taken advantage of the island's beautiful natural environment and abundant freshwater resources to vigorously develop tourism, and plans to connect Thitu Island and nearby islands to develop a tourist route for illegally occupied islands.
Now, Thitu Island has become the command center of the Philippines in the Spratly Islands, through which the center radiates the surrounding islands, and the Philippines firmly occupies China's nine islands and reefs in the Spratly Islands.
Therefore, it is clear that the Philippine Navy's purpose in promoting Thitu Island tourism is not simple.
Although the Philippines has not built tourism-related facilities on Thitu Island and other islands, the tourism conditions of these islands are not mature at present. However, the Philippine Navy spokesman's remarks did not really encourage people to travel, but had another purpose.
In fact, since last year, the Philippines has been making a lot of moves in the South China Sea, repeatedly sending construction supplies to beached vessels at Second Thomas Shoal, trying to reinforce the Sierra Madre to illegally occupy Second Thomas Shoal, and making frequent provocations in the waters off Scarborough Shoal, which China actually controls.
In particular, during this year's Spring Festival holiday, the Philippines sent coast guard vessels to illegally intrude into the waters of Scarborough Shoal, and then conducted joint patrols with the US Air Force in sensitive waters.
After the United States increased its so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy", it has been coercing and enticing the Philippines by various means, aiming to make it the vanguard of anti-China urgency. The new Marcos's public approval rating continues to decline, hoping to divert domestic contradictions and stabilize his position by setting up an external imaginary enemy.
Therefore, the Philippine Navy spokesperson's actions must have been authorized by **, aimed at strengthening the control of illegally occupied islands such as Thitu Island, so as to assert sovereignty over these islands, win the advantage in "international arbitration", and finally legalize the illegal occupation.
The global situation is chaotic and complex, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East, and the United States is undoubtedly the key driver of this. At present, the United States is provoking the Philippines to put pressure on China on the South China Sea issue.
As a peaceful power, China has always exercised restraint and patience with the South China Sea issue. However, the Philippines does not understand China's good intentions, but instead sees China's restraint as a sign of fear and weakness.
Although the United States has deployed a number of aircraft carriers in the western Pacific region to try to exert pressure on China, if the Philippines continues to go its own way and ignores China's dissuasion and warnings, China will certainly show its strong determination and strength.