"China Warns The Philippines That They Are Very Capable..." Topic

… Of Removing Their Base In The Disputed Area Of South China Sea.

"China has shown patience, but it is committed to defending its territory, says commentary in the People's Daily ahead of tribunal ruling on maritime disputes in the region

China is fully capable of removing a Philippine naval vessel set up as a permanent base in a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, but has so far shown restraint, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece said on Monday.

The commentary in the People's Daily comes ahead of an imminent ruling from a international court in The Hague on China's claims to territory in the region's disputed waters. The case was bought by the Philippines.

The Philippines Navy deliberately grounded an old US built landing craft on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea in 1999.

It has since kept a team of about a dozen military personnel on the ship to maintain occupation…"
From here
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Amicalement
Armand

I think China needs to find a new hobby instead of irritating their neighbors.

China is in a pretty dodgy spot right now. With the imminent automation of a good bit of manufacturing they are going to have to rapidly re-tool their economy.

Irritating their neighbors could be to distract the people from that. What is almost certain is that this probably has nothing to do with a naval base.

They were willing to lose more soldiers in a 1979 month-long invasion of Vietnam than the US did in nine years. They were willing to do it to show that the defense treaty Vietnam had signed with the USSR was worth nothing.

They do not move in linear paths to their goals always.

Others are very capable of removing their bases in the SCS too.

Perhaps they should consider that as well.

That's quite true, it works both ways. Besides, those artificial islands might not do too well to waves from a powerful tropical storm.

So the Philippine base on the atoll is an old WWII era transport that is just basically rusting away? And the Chinese are threatened by it?

Its probably what's under the ocean around there that is of interest.

All your bases are belong to us!

Melt the icecaps, drown the artificial islands. Problem solved.

Where is President Duterte's jet-ski death-ride which he promised us a couple of months ago? I was really looking forward to that. Life is full of disappointment it seems.