WHAT’S HAPPENING THERE?
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which includes Second Thomas Shoal, and deploys hundreds of vessels there to patrol the waters and swarm reefs.
Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Manila says China’s coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the waters.
They also regularly attempt to disrupt resupply operations to the tiny Philippine garrison on Second Thomas Shoal, according to Manila.
The handful of Philippine marines deployed on the BRP Sierra Madre depend upon those resupply missions to survive their remote assignment.
The Philippine Coast Guard fears China will seek to occupy Second Thomas Shoal if the military detachment leaves.
WHY DOES ALL THIS MATTER?
The South China Sea is seen as a powder keg and many fear a miscalculation or accident could ignite a military conflict.
The Philippines is poorly armed, but the United States has said it would defend its longtime ally in the South China Sea under a decades-old mutual defence pact.
The US has no territorial claim over the waters, but has persisted in conducting its own patrols there, angering Beijing.
Washington says this is to ensure what it terms “freedom of navigation” in the sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
WHAT’S BEEN THE REACTION TO THE LATEST INCIDENT?
Manila summoned Beijing’s envoy on Monday.
“Our Secretary of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Huang today and gave him a note verbale including pictures, video about what happened and we are awaiting their reply,” President Ferdinand Marcos told reporters.
“The position of China, of course, is they say ‘this is ours so we are defending it’ and we, for our part, are saying ‘no, we own it so we are defending it’. So that becomes a grey area that we are discussing.”
The Philippines has issued more than 400 diplomatic protests to Beijing since 2020 over its “illegal activities” in the South China Sea, the foreign ministry said.
“For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal. We are committed to Ayungin Shoal,” National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters Monday, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal.
The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese actions, saying they were carried out by the coast guard and “maritime militia”, and that they directly threatened regional peace and stability.
Britain, Australia, Canada and the European Union also criticised Beijing’s actions.
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it firmly opposes the US statement which it described as attacking China’s maritime rights in the South China Sea, adding that Washington was “blatantly” supporting the Philippines’ violation of China’s sovereignty.
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