Since 2023, there have been many provocations by the Philippines in the South China Sea, first there are incidents such as Thitu Island and Ren'ai Reef, which has brought the Philippines to illegally set up "buoys" in the South China Sea, including five areas such as Faith Island, Scarborough Shoal, Nanjiao Island, Double Yellow Sandbar, and Oxbow Reef, so the Philippines is really constantly touching China's red line!
No, these things are just over, and the Philippines is actually looking for things again.
According to Philippine media Rappler, the Philippines wants to regain control of Reed Bank to avoid a power crisis in its own country.
Indeed, this idea of the Philippines is very dangerous, it is completely "playing with fire", touching China's red line, and taking the same measures in various regions, so what is going on?
Let's take a look and briefly introduce the things about Reed Beach.
Reed Beach
Reed Beach is located in the mainland Nansha Islands island reef beach sand, and the area is very large, the beach is 130 kilometers long from north to south, 65 kilometers wide from east to west, the water depth is within 200 meters, it contains what we call Xiongnan Reef, Antang Reef, Gongzhen Reef, Horseshoe Crab Vine Reef and other small islands and reefs.
So, to put it bluntly, this Reed Beach is actually a large area, including a number of small areas, and the geographical location of Reed Beach is very special, adjacent to the large island of Palawan in the western Philippines.
Therefore, for a long time, the Philippines has declared itself "sovereignty" over the region, and it is clear that this is again unilateral statement by the Philippines.
Just like the islands above, the invasion of China is also said to be its own. However, the biggest highlight of Reed Beach is the resource problem we are talking about in the South China Sea, which is extremely rich in resources and can be said to be a rare oil and gas zone in the South China Sea.
According to public data, oil reserves near Reed Beach may reach 6 billion barrels, natural gas reserves reach 55.6 billion cubic meters, and there are also data showing that the proven natural gas capacity of Reed Beach is 96.28 trillion liters. Therefore, although the data is also differentiated, it is enough to show that the resources of Reed Beach are immeasurable.
However, because of this, in order to alleviate its country's energy crisis, the Philippines has constantly provoked at Reed Bank, and in 2011, there was a confrontation incident over the Philippines' exploration of Reed Bank, and then Chinese survey ships and warships unloaded construction materials and established outposts at Li Ten Reef and Antang Reef, which was interpreted by the outside world as China's response to the critical situation in Reed Beach.
At the same time, China also issued a statement later, publicly pointing out that the Lile Basin is very rich in oil and gas resources, and China has repeatedly stated that it is illegal for any country or company to engage in oil and gas activities in waters under China's jurisdiction without China's permission.
Therefore, from what is known, Reed Beach is within the scope of China's actual control. However, in the face of the energy crisis, the Philippines is indeed looking for things again.
Philippine media: Regain control of Reed Beach to avoid a power crisis
It is true that the energy of this region can alleviate the energy crisis in the Philippines, but it is completely impossible for the Philippines to regain control.
China's attitude towards sovereignty has been very clear, just as in the Sino-Philippine Ren'ai Jiao confrontation, the Philippine ship wanted to forcibly intrude into China's Ren'ai Jiao, and the Chinese coast guard ship directly took interception measures.
Although the difference between the boats of the two countries is only 36 meters recently, we are still not afraid of your ship coming to hit. Therefore, do not underestimate our determination to uphold sovereignty. Of course, this incident also scared the Philippine ship, and finally left. Therefore, it is not so easy to do things in Reed Beach.
Why did the Philippines see Reed Beach? What is the purpose? As mentioned above, the Philippines is facing an energy crisis, and the Philippines' own Malapaya gas field is already facing "depletion", and if energy search is not carried out, it may be completely useless.
According to the report, the field is expected to be completely gone in the first quarter of 2027.
Therefore, the energy crisis is in front of the Philippines, this time to regain control of Reed Beach, to avoid a power crisis, this is indeed a bit of a "big talk", Reed Beach is under the control of the mainland, do you think you can come over? Definitely not.
Of course, in fact, China and the Philippines still have intentions to cooperate in development, and China and the Philippines have also signed a memorandum of understanding.
In 2018, China and the Philippines wanted joint development and signed an agreement, but because China has publicly stated that it has sovereignty over Reed Beach, the Philippines also says it does. So, the memorandum of understanding ended in June 2022 and no longer gave the opportunity to talk.
Since then, although the Philippines has also hoped to restart the issue of joint mining again, there has been no progress.
However, the Chinese side has also given a clear statement before, that is, the South China Sea issue is not the mainstream of Philippine-China relations, and cooperation between the two sides should not be restricted and hindered, and the Philippines is willing to have frank exchanges with China and find a friendly solution, which is the correct way for the two countries to get along, so that the cooperation between the two sides can achieve more results and bring more benefits to the two peoples.
Therefore, in fact, the mainland is also willing to carry out exchanges and cooperation. But on the question of sovereignty, there can be no concessions, and that's the approximate situation.
However, having said that, the next cooperation negotiations may face more difficulties, because the Philippines continues to provoke in the South China Sea, and the illegal occupation of China's islands has not yet been returned, which will inevitably be the existence of resistance, so how to develop later, we can only continue to see.
summary
On the whole, it is true that there is still cooperation between China and the Philippines, but on the issue of sovereignty, that is another exception.
Moreover, the Philippines has a situation of "saying one thing and doing another", just like during the US-Philippine exercise, it actually set up targets on the mainland's Scarborough Shoal.
At the same time, it is said that the military bases of the Philippines are not aimed at China, but it is obvious that this is not the case, and if it is really not targeted, it is completely possible to change positions.
Therefore, we still need to continue to strengthen our territorial management, and for the islands that have been occupied, we should deal with them, as everyone can see - the Philippines provokes in the South China Sea, and the Chinese 10,000-ton tug is in place, and this tug is in the Ren'ai Jiao area, which shows that the mainland may take measures in this area.
There is a Philippine warship in the area of Ren'ai Jiao, which has always been a problem, and if nothing else, the Chinese tugboat is aimed at it, so we also look forward to seeing this scene of being towed away sooner.
At the same time, we also look forward to the early establishment of a "blow-fill" area in the South China Sea to achieve more stations, which will be more conducive to the control of the South China Sea.