The Philippines has repeatedly provoked incidents in the South China Sea and declared its so-called "sovereignty" by dropping buoys near China's islands and reefs. What does it mean that China quickly responded by setting up light buoys on three islands and reefs, and the announcement was issued by the Ministry of Transportation? Why is it said that the Philippines created an incident which is equivalent to sending "assistance" to China?
For a long time, the United States has always wanted to find a "grasp" country in China's peripheral areas and thus introduce itself into the situation in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. As a former colony of the United States and the southeastern gateway of Asia, the Philippines is regarded by the United States as the most desirable target. After Marcos became president of the Philippines, the United States and the Philippines stepped up and strengthened military cooperation, not only holding two large-scale joint military exercises in succession, but also adding four new bases in the Philippines for the use of the US military. Three of them are close to the Taiwan Strait and one is facing the South China Sea, and the purpose is clearly aimed at China.
At the beginning of May this year, Marcos visited the United States, and US President Joe Biden directly gave a "security commitment," saying that if the Philippines "is attacked," then the US military will enter the situation in accordance with the "US-Philippines Common Defense Treaty." Provide military support to the Philippine side. Thanks to the commitment of the United States, the Philippines was full of confidence and placed five giant buoys with the Philippine flag in the 3 2 2 km area of the South China Sea region from May 1 0 to January 2. In this way, it is declared that the Philippines has so-called "sovereignty" over the islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
Judging from the regional situation, the Philippines placed a buoy at the farthest distance near the oxbow reef, intending to "row away half of the Nansha Islands." At the same time, the Philippines was again confronting Chinese coast guard vessels in the waters near Ren'ai Reef. However, in a series of provocations against the Philippines, China did not protest against the Philippine Government through foreign relations or military channels, but directly "punched hard."
At Ren'ai Jiao, a large Chinese tugboat appeared, apparently preparing to tow away the land-boarding ship "Monte Madrey," which the Philippines had stranded here, in a vain attempt to destroy production by forcibly occupying China's islands and reefs through this ship. On May 2 and 4, China's Ministry of Transport and Transport announced an important message that in order to ensure the safety of shipping and operations, it had passed through the Nanxue Reef and Gaven Reef on the Nansha Islands Three light buoys were set up in the waters near Fire Wormwood Reef and Oxbow Reef.
China's lamp-dropping buoys on Gaven Reef, Fire Ai Reef, and Oxbow Reef not only provided convenience to passing ships, but also declared to the international community that China has unquestionable sovereignty over the three islands and reefs. It is worth mentioning that China has actually controlled these three islands.
Of these reefs, the oxbow reef is very important in value, and it is located at the northeastern tip of the Chapter 9 reef, which can be said to be the door of the reef. Historically, oxbow reefs were discovered by Chinese fishermen more than a thousand years ago and got their name because they resembled ox yokes. The oxbow reef area is 2 3 square kilometers and the reef area is 1 3 square kilometers. In the 90s of the last century, China erected a monument to its sovereignty on oxbow reefs, but at that time only light control was exercised, and small fishing boats assisted in protection.
From 2021, the Philippines exerted pressure on public opinion to report on the entry of Chinese fishermen into oxbow reefs. In fact, oxbow reefs have always been the stopping points for Chinese fishermen's fishing boats. Chinese fishermen have been fishing in this area all year round, which will also enable China to better exercise practical control over oxbows and reefs.
In March, the Philippines directly took action and dispatched warships to drive away Chinese fishermen in the waters near oxbow reef and provoke the "oxbow reef incident." The Philippine side also took the pretext that "China will adopt the Huangyan Dao model to control the oxbow reef" and dispatched more naval and air forces and coast guard warships and aircraft to the waters near the islands and reefs. Philippine Military Academy Students' Association, Military Academy Retired Members' Association, Business Society, and other non-governmental organizations have made strong remarks one after another, even threatening to "clear the South China Sea." The attitude is extremely arrogant. Although China patiently explained the situation and stressed that the prospects of Sino-Philippine friendship and cooperation should not be misled by differences at sea, the Philippines insisted on going its own way and "matched" with the United States. He accused Chinese fishermen of being "civilian soldiers," slandered China for wanting to control oxbow reefs forever, and also showed that "illegal construction" had been discovered.
The Philippine coast guard also brought a number of foreign reporters to forcibly break into many Nansha islands and reefs, including Ren'ai Reef and Ox Yoke Reef, and confronted the Chinese coast guard vessels patrolling the waters attached to the waters.
It is worth mentioning that the Philippine Defense Minister has repeatedly mentioned the "Mischief Reef Incident" in 1995 and the "Huangyan Island Incident" in 2012, hoping to stir up national sentiment in the Philippines. However, the Philippines' approach is not only low-level, but also meaningless. It has become very clear that the Philippines did not gain convenience from China in 1995 and 2012, but on the contrary, it promoted China to complete its actual control over Mischief Reef and Huangyan Dao. It has captured two extremely important islands and reefs in the South China Sea. In this situation, the United States, which is behind the Philippines, has not taken any substantive action. At present, China has placed buoys near oxbow reefs, which means that after Mischief Reef and Huangyan Island, China has actually controlled an important island or reef from the Philippines.
The oxbow reef has a 20 square kilometer reef plate, which can be blown to fill 5 square kilometers of reef soil, and build harbors, airports and other infrastructure facilities on the blow reef fill. Now that the oxbow reef has been released from the sandbank, China can dispatch advanced sand blowing and reclamation boats to build a 3,000-meter airplane runway on the oxbow reef, thus covering the entire nine-chapter reef.
In addition to oxbow reefs, Gaven Reef and Fire Ai Reef also have great value values. Fire Ai Reef is relatively close to Subi Island, which is actually controlled by China, and plays an important supervisory role in the South Key Island, Mahuan Island, Thitu Island, Xiyue Island, Faith Island, and Shuanghuang Shazhou that the Philippines has invaded. In addition, Fire Ai Reef has very good island conditions, with a total area of 6. 8 square kilometers, with a small lagoon in the middle and sandbanks in the north, which can be filled in by blowing sand to become a larger artificial island. If China can build Huoyai Reef into a garrison point similar to Chigua Reef, it will be able to cut off the ties between the islands and reefs invaded and occupied by the Philippines and pave the way for the next step of recovering these islands.
In 2023, the Philippine Marcos Government also tried to provoke incidents in the South China Sea, which was sending "assistance" to China and fully exercising control over oxbow reefs. At present, China's large coast guard vessels have carried out regular patrols on the Nansha Islands, which makes the Philippines dare not attack the main intention of attacking China's islands and reefs again, nor dare to drive away Chinese fishermen. With regard to the situation in which China has set up buoys in the waters near Gaven Reef, Fire Ai Reef, and Oxbow Reef, the Philippines has done nothing but verbally protest.