When it comes to China-Philippines relations, I believe that the first thing that comes to most people's minds is territorial disputes, such as the South China Sea arbitration case, which has been widely known for 16 years and has caused an international uproar. However, the territorial disputes between China and the Philippines, especially maritime territorial disputes, are not new in recent years, and today we will talk about a little-known war between the two countries that arose in 1994 because of territorial disputes - the Battle of South Key Island between China and the Philippines.
Because of the passage of time, we may not know or even know about this war today, but in the future dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, the impact of the Battle of South Key Island is still very far-reaching.
Located in the Spratly Islands, South Key Island is an island and reef, with Thitu Island and TD Reef not far to the north. The whole island looks like a triangle, about 300 meters in diameter, and the area is about 008 km². 18 nautical miles north from Nankey Island, you can enter Taiping Island.
The elevation of South Key Island is 18 meters, in the Spratly Islands, it can be said to be the shortest island. It is surrounded by scattered coral reefs, and the coral reef rocks on both sides have been exposed to the water due to sea erosion. The island has very dense bushes that can grow up to 3-4 meters high, with coconut palms growing in the middle, and because of this, there is a lot of guano covering the central part of the island. And because the island's sand banks are relatively small, it is difficult to store fresh water, so fresh water resources are very scarce.
Nankey Island is the ancestral territory of our local fishermen, who have always taken Nankey Island as the center and went out to sea to fish in the surrounding area. The island's coconut palms, old houses, and wells that provide fresh water have all been built by local fishermen for generations. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, people even built a small temple in the center of the island to bless people with a safe and peaceful life at sea.
However, in modern times, due to China's poverty and weakness, coupled with the continuous aggression of the colonial empires of foreign powers, Nankey Island was once separated from the embrace of the motherland. In 1933, the French sent troops to occupy South Key, in 1943 the Japanese sent troops to occupy the island, and in the 1950s, the United States sent troops to occupy South Key, but after 1959 they gave up. After 1968, the Philippines sent troops to illegally occupy South Key Island. It was not until after the 80s that our country exercised normal power over South Key Island.
However, the Philippines has always coveted China's territory, and even provoked for a time, and finally in 1994, while China's navy was cruising normally on South Key Island, it took the lead in taking action against China's naval forces.
In 1994, in order to ensure the normal life and production of Chinese fishermen in Nankey Island and other related areas, China sent the navy to carry out regular patrols in the sea area, but it was strongly interfered with by the Philippine Navy and military, and the Philippine side even sent a ** block, which seriously interfered with China's normal patrol routes.
As we all know, since the 10s, China has been forced by the international situation and the limitations of its own strength, and has always shown a conservative and restrained attitude in foreign military affairs, such as the "Milky Way" incident that just occurred in 1993, which is a very representative performance.
However, the restraint of our army is a sign of fear in the eyes of the Philippines. Under the condition that our army calmly handled it, they still made provocative moves at one time, and even took the lead in openly opening fire directly on our army and firing at them. In the face of such behavior on the Philippine side, our army was forced into a corner. In a situation where there is no patience and no retreat, our army can only be forced to fight back. A military clash broke out between the two sides.
Under the heroic and sudden counterattack of our army, the Philippine side was taken by surprise, and immediately rushed and collapsed. Perhaps, in their opinion, how dare such cowardly Chinese fight back!
In the end, as a result of our army's calm response and heroic and resolute return fire, two gunboats on the Philippine side were sunk and several soldiers were killed. Illegal Filipino structures on the island were also destroyed, including a watchtower. With the dream of invading China's territory and the arrogance of ignorance of current affairs, they sank forever in the waters of Nankey Island, the sea they once wanted to invade.
And our army in this sudden military conflict, there is no one, which greatly boosts the morale of our army.
After this naval battle, the Philippines recognized the difference in strength between China and the Philippines and understood that although it had the heart of aggression, it did not have the power to invade. Faced with this helpless reality, the Philippines could only be full of reluctance and gritted its teeth to give up South Key Island.
However, although the hot war of military conflict between the two sides ended, the effects of this naval battle did not end there.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a small ocean-going island can be divided into a territorial sea and an exclusive economic zone: the territorial sea can be up to 1,500 square kilometers (12 nautical miles, 22 kilometers, radius squared multiplied by 3.).14), the exclusive economic zone is about 400,000 square kilometers.
In other words, with the defeat of the Philippine side at Nankey Island, China actually occupied Nankey Island, and there is a sea area of 1,500 square kilometers around Nankey Island and an exclusive economic zone of about 400,000 square kilometers. This is self-evident in terms of ensuring the better production and life of local fishermen and ensuring the benefits of China's better economic development and rule in the local area.
The victory in the naval battle of Nankey Island demonstrated the strength of our army and the fearless spirit of fearless sacrifice in the face of foreign aggression, and dealt a great blow to the foreign forces that were ready to move and vainly wanted to occupy our territory.
And the fact is that after the Battle of Nankey Island, the situation in the South China Sea calmed down for quite some time, and all forces on all sides stopped their restless small actions and chose to wait and see for the time being.
What I didn't expect was that this bought time for our army to enter Mischief Reef.
Mischief Reef is also located in the Spratly Islands and is a coral atoll. In the mouths of local Chinese fishermen, they prefer to call it Shuangmen or Shuangsha. At present, Mischief Reef is under the jurisdiction of Sansha City, Hainan Province. Its strategic position is very important.
If you look at Mischief Reef from above, you will see that it is an oval-shaped coral atoll, and it is topped with coral. It has a diameter of about 9 kilometers from east to west and about 6 kilometers from north to south, and its area is about 46 square kilometers. It is surrounded by lurking reefs that only protrude 6 feet below the surface at low tide. It only takes one kilometre to explore the reef and the water can reach depths of more than a kilometre.
It should be mentioned that inside the atoll there is an inner lagoon of about 36 square kilometers, where the water depth is about 20-30 meters. The three reef gates of the lake are located in the south and southwest of the island. The most important thing is that it is located in the west waterway of the south gate, which is 37 meters wide, 274 meters long, and 18 meters deep. At high tide, large enough for our large boats to enter the inner lagoon of Mischief Reef, this channel is a natural sheltered harbor.
As a natural sheltered harbor, the lagoon of Mischief Reef is located in a disputed geographical location between China and the Philippines.
In addition, in order to declare sovereignty and take into account the requirements of the fishery administration department to protect the safety of the lives and property of fishermen engaged in fishing and production operations in the Nansha waters, China agreed that the fishery administration department has built a total of 13 second-generation stilt houses called "sea steel pavilions" and "sea yurts" in four directions around Mischief Reef.
Although these second-generation stilt houses on stilts ensure that the officers and soldiers stationed there have a living space of about 30 square meters, every summer, when the hot season comes, these tin houses will frantically absorb the light and heat of the sun, and the inside of the house must be like a stove. And this tin house was built on the sea, and there was sea water on all sides, and the moisture spread out, and the people in the house were like steamers, and the conditions were still very bad.
However, even in such a harsh environment, the officers and men of our navy still did not change their original intentions, did not choose to retreat, and stuck to their posts day by day for several years.
At the end of January 1995, our Navy released a Filipino fishing vessel that had been temporarily investigated. Unexpectedly, the captain of this fishing boat was resentful after returning to the Philippines, and hyped up what he had done during the investigation, and even reported to the Philippines that he and his crew were illegally detained and detained by the Chinese Navy for a week.
The Philippines, who are not dead, suddenly realized that the excuse was coming, and they sent a patrol ship and a reconnaissance plane on February 2 to spy on China's Mischief Reef on the grounds that this incident had been changed beyond recognition, and as a result, they discovered China's buildings on Mischief Reef.
On February 8, Ramos, then a Philippine ** Ramos, made a speech, in which he shamelessly claimed that China had invaded the Philippine Spratly waters and built buildings on Mischief Reef, which the Philippines "owned", and even produced a strongly worded and rude "memorandum" demanding that China abide by the relevant provisions of international law.
In the face of the ridiculous accusations of the Philippines, a spokesman for China responded. First of all, it was made clear that we did not detain any Filipino personnel, but only asked them to cooperate in the investigation. In addition, the buildings on Mischief Reef are civilian facilities to ensure the production and livelihood of local fishermen, and are not so-called military facilities, let alone military bases.
However, just when our country thought that this was just an ordinary diplomatic incident, the Philippine side had already taken the opportunity to make a military response by deploying troops.
In late February 1995, after the Chinese side made a clear statement, the Philippines turned a blind eye to this and still sent all its fighter jets to the Nansha Islands. And a large number of troops were added to the Spratly Islands area.
At the end of March. In order to further test China's bottom line, the Philippines directly dispatched its navy to blow up all the surveying tools set up by China on several islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands, including Wufang Reef, Xian'e Reef, Xinyi Reef, Half Moon Reef and Ren'ai Reef, to measure the relevant situation in the South China Sea.
After this sudden attack, which caused people to be filled with righteous indignation, the Philippine military became more and more frenzied and arrogant, and was not even willing to wait for a short time, and directly sent the navy's patrol boats and fighter planes into the waters of the Nansha Islands. Unfortunately, there happened to be four Chinese fishing boats resting near Half Moon Reef.
Seeing this, the Philippine army immediately turned its mind on these fishermen, and after a forceful action, all 62 fishermen were arrested by the Philippine military, and misinterpreted the international law of the sea and charged them with trumped-up charges. In the face of these accusations that they have never even heard of, honest fishermen are naturally speechless and unable to speak bitterly.
After that, the Philippine military still wants to escalate the situation in order to test China's bottom line.
On May 13, 1995, the Philippine side bribed 38 domestic and foreign journalists to the vicinity of Mischief Reef by boat and to conduct an "interview" that they had drafted long ago, in an attempt to make the Mischief Reef incident attract wider attention from the international community and pour more dirty water on the Chinese side.
To their surprise, near Mischief Reef, the reporters and the steamer happened to collide with the South China Sea Fishery Administration and Fishing Port Supervision and Administration Bureau, which was enforcing the law here"China Fishery Administration No. 34"Boat.
The 34" vessel is an ordinary law enforcement vessel, and it is just here for the ordinary task of conducting routine inspections, and there is nothing on board. But in the face of these menacing and ill-intentioned foreigners and the heavily armed planes behind them, the 34" boat still stood in their way to Mischief Reef, and immediately reported the situation to their superiors. In the face of the arrogant and rude face of the Philippines, the higher-level departments could not bear it, and directly issued a sonorous order to the "34" ship: prohibit the other party from entering within eight nautical miles of Mischief Reef, and if the blocking fails, the No. 34 ship can be directly scuttled and sunk in the main channel of Mischief Reef, and swear not to let the other party enter Mischief Reef!
After receiving the order from the superiors, the crew of the "No. 34" ship immediately became angry, and at this time, they ignored how much force the other side had, and all the crew had only one thought: "The people are here, the ship is there, the reef is there, the national flag is there, and China's territory is there!" In this way, the unarmed ship "No. 34" and the other side, equipped with two armed landing ships and a frigate equipped with seven cannons, continued to circulate for more than 8 hours.
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In October 1998, the Philippines revived its wolf ambitions to encroach on Chinese waters, and they again stirred up the dispute, claiming that the stilt houses** that China had built in the waters off Mischief Reef for fishermen were "military installations" and that "these buildings could be used for purposes other than fishermen's refuge."
In November 1998, the Philippine navy arrested more than 20 Chinese fishermen who were engaged in normal fishing operations near Xian'e Reef and threw them directly into a prison on the island of Palawan.
What is ridiculous is that the Philippines knows that it cannot stand alone against China, which is growing in national strength, so it wants to use this incident to provoke the dissatisfaction of other ASEAN countries against China, in a vain attempt to fish in troubled waters amid the accusations of many countries. However, ASEAN was in the midst of an economic crisis at that time, and it could not even handle the situation on its own turf, so it had no time to estimate such a thankless task as the Philippines. ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Sefrino even said directly:"We have bigger problems to solve, especially economic ones"。
In desperation, the Philippines** turned to the United States for help, and after receiving the solidarity of a low-level American congressman with little influence, Republican Congressman Dana Lorabacher, the Philippine side suddenly got carried away and threatened to continue to expand its influence, seek wider international assistance, and submit the Mischief Reef issue to international arbitration.
However, after the pragmatic Chinese ** made a diplomatic statement with righteous rhetoric, it ignored the stubborn barking of the Philippine side.
In the months from the second half of 1998 to the beginning of 1999, Chinese workers came to Mischief Reef and, under the protection of our Navy frigates, built four reinforced concrete three-story buildings on Mischief Reef, making Mischief Reef a permanent outpost of the People's Republic of China.
At that time, Estrada, who was still in the Philippines, could not accept this fait accompli, and even asked the Philippine Navy to "blockade" Mischief Reef. In our view, this is a clear act of harm to others and not to ourselves. However, a dramatic scene occurred, and the Philippine Navy did not carry out this order. He even came forward to explain that ** meant nothing more than letting himself spy on Mischief Reef.
This is not the conscience of the Philippine Navy, but after a series of detailed comparative analysis, they found that the strength of their navy is not at all the opponent of the two frigates that China sent to protect Mischief Reef. Moreover, these two frigates are only of the "Jianghu" class.
So far, after nearly a decade of disputes, the islands and reefs in the South Key Island, Mischief Reef and other waters have officially returned to the embrace of the motherland in a stable manner.
The navy has always been the guarantee for our country to safeguard its sovereignty in the South China Sea, and the four major islands in the South China Sea have been China's inherent territory since ancient times.
It is not my intention to seal the marquis, but I hope that the sea will be flat. "On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, I hope that the waters of China will be calm and the territory of China will be stable forever.