Thread by @andreasmoun

Tensions between the #Philippines and #China have yet again erupted over Chinese claims on the #SouthChina Sea. - #Thread

(1) Manila has accused Beijing of firing water cannons at the boats that were delivering supplies to the Filipino military personnel in the South China Sea, specifically the Second Thomas Shoal which belongs to Philippines Exclusive zone.

(2) Ordering Beijing to back off Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said that he had expressed "outrage, condemnation and protest” over the incident which according to him occurred on November 16th 2021.

(3) "Fortunately, no one was hurt; but our boats had to abort their resupply mission," Locsin said in a statement on Twitter, describing the three Chinese vessels' actions as "illegal". Locsin described the Philippine boats as

(4) "public", suggesting they were civilian vessels, and said they were covered by a mutual defence pact with the United States.
"China has no law enforcement rights in and around these areas," he added. "They must take heed and back off."

(5) China claims almost all of the South China Sea, a waterway that enables an estimated $3.37 trillion in global trade pass through each year. The South China Sea accounts for 80 percent of China's energy imports and 39.5 percent of its total trade. Brunei, Malaysia,

(6) Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan all have competing claims to the contested waters, which feature significant fishing grounds and are thought to be perched atop large oil and gas deposits. An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that China's historical claims to

(7) the South China Sea were unfounded. Beijing has continued to flout the verdict to this day. Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 and lies just 240 km (150 miles) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, is one of the reefs under Chinese

(8) control in the South China Sea. Beijing has made its presence felt by converting minor shoals and reefs into military sites with landing strips and docks.

(9) Manila regards Second Thomas Shoal also known as Ayungin Shoal as being within its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The Philippines has occupied the Shoal since 1999 after internationally grounding a navy ship on the reef when China occupied Mischief

(10) Reef in the mid-1990s.The Ayungin Shoal is part of the Kalayaan islands, and China claims it as part of its territory, despite a 2016 judgement in favour of the Philippines by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Manila has been re-establishing its security ties

(11) and re-establishing rapport with the United States in recent months in a desperate bid to thwart a belligerent Beijing. Manila is also one of the few Southeast Asian countries to completely endorse the AUKUS( a trilateral

(12) security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region) security pact.

(13) Duterte, the Philippines' current President, tried in the past to curry favour with China but was unable to soften Beijing's pugnacious attitude against Manila. Duterte was promised heavy investment under the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) by China.but the projects hardly

(14) materialised. China, on the other hand, increased the number of navy vessels in the South China Sea. In 2019 and 2020, China enveloped the Philippines' Thitu Island (also known as Pag-asa) with hundreds of military vessels, purportedly to prevent Philippine authorities

(15) from repairing the island's runway and undertaking other infrastructure upgrades. Earlier this year, hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels were sighted near a couple of South China Sea islets, the most notable of

(16) which was the Whitsun Reef, which is located within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

(17) The fateful waters of the South China Sea can't seem to stay peaceful, thanks to Beijing's unquenchable desire to trespass on foreign territories. A Chinese surveillance ship rammed and drowned a Vietnamese fishing vessel in April 2020. The following month, China

(18) launched an exploratory vessel near Malaysia's EEZ. Beijing was consolidating its foothold in the South China Sea even as the rest of the world was tackling the Wuhan virus pandemic.

(19) China has gone so far as to create new administrative districts in the disputed waters, naming at least 25 islands and reefs in Mandarin in the process.

(20) China has been surreptitiously building artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. These man-made islands comprise nearly 3200 acres of land, which was previously not classified a territory under international norms until an international tribunal

(21) declared in 2016 that Beijing had violated international law by constructing the islets. China is using these islands to strengthen its military infrastructure in the Pacific Ocean. Additionally these

(22) islands will give China control over the international waterway used for maritime trade and commerce. As a result, if Beijing controls the South China Sea, much to the dismay of other international economic giants such as the United States and Japan, it also controls global

(23) trade. The US and its allies are significantly more invested in this region, and the Philippines has relied on their help and support in its confrontation against China. In the face of a defiant Beijing, the United

(24) States, Canada, Australia, and Japan have all voiced support for Manila. The Dragon, on the other hand, is still unbridled and unfettered, and it continues to operate in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.