The Philippines lodged its “strongest protest” against Beijing on Monday and summoned a senior Chinese diplomat over a water cannon assault by the Chinese coast guard that injured Filipino navy crew members and heavily damaged their boat in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.
In response, China warned that relations were at a crossroads and the Philippines should choose a prudent path forward.
Two Chinese coast guard ships hit a Philippine navy-operated supply boat with water cannons Saturday in the latest and most serious confrontation between the rival Asian claimants near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, which is surrounded by Chinese vessels in a bid to dislodge Philippine forces from there.
The repeated high-seas confrontations since last year have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course.. The U.S. has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
The United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia and about 16 other countries have expressed support to the Philippines and the rule of law, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
I was unfamiliar with the geography so I looked it up on a map. It’s crazy that China is making claims to the water. It’s over 700 miles from China but only 120 miles from the Philippines.
It would be like Canada making territorial claims to the water around Bermuda.
Welcome to the imperialist affront to international law that is the ten-dash-line (previously known as the nine-dash-line).
The Wikipedia Article explains the grounds that each of the 6 countries involved base their claim.
Some are based on historical ownership from WW2, others it’s either apart of its continental shelf or within 200 miles of its coast.
China is deseparately trying to flip off every neighboring country, aren’t they?
Given their global network of secret police stations, global hacking, espionage, intellectual property theft and other shenanigans, the debt trap scheme that is the belt and road initiative, etc. pp. they are doing far more than just being a dangerous nuisance to neighboring countries. What’s worse is that any time they are being called out, they and their sycophants are pulling the sinophobia card or using the age-old defense of what’s indefensible, whataboutism.
Pride comes before the fall. And I think here especially, China is getting way too cocky.
I mean… The entire first sentence can be copied for the USA lmao. Just replace belt and road initiative with IMF.
Not saying this discounts any of what China is doing, but I thought it was funny because you mentioned whataboutism.
Because the parent mentioned that the typical defence of Chinese actions is whataboutism you thought it would be funny to do some whataboutism about the actions of China?
In case you were innocently using whataboutism without meaning to, here’s a tip to avoid it.
If you’re going to compare to the US or wherever, first ask yourself if that place was mentioned in the comment you’re replying to. If not, it’s whataboutism.
