Knowing that Huangyan Island is heavily guarded by Chinese troops, the Philippine side will send people to forcibly break in, and I am afraid that these illegal reef landers have no motives other than "touching porcelain". The only explanation that makes sense is that the Philippine side is playing a trick of attacking the West. However, the Philippine side wants to use this kind of trick to dig a trap for China, and it is obviously thinking too simply.
As the first month of 2024 draws to a close, the Philippine side cannot sit still, and recently, four Philippine personnel forcibly crossed the border into China's Scarborough Shoal without permission to carry out activities. This is not the first provocation by the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal.
[The Philippines sent 4 people to forcibly enter Scarborough Shoal]
Last September, the Chinese coast guard placed a 300-meter-long buoy southeast of Scarborough Shoal to stop indiscriminate hunting and killing by foreign vessels. China's move is a reasonable and compliant approach to safeguard its territory and marine environment, but the Philippine Coast Guard has stepped in on it, and the Philippine Coast Guard has issued a statement criticizing China's buoys as a threat to navigation safety, and interpreting China's actions as a threat to the livelihood of Filipino fishermen, and even violating international law. What is even more excessive is that in this statement, the Philippine side went so far as to include Scarborough Shoal in its jurisdiction without authorization.
Interestingly, the Philippine side even directed and acted in a ridiculous "one-man show". In the video sent by the Philippine side at that time, it can be clearly seen that a member of the Philippine Coast Guard, armed with a short knife, directly cut the rope connecting the buoy. The Philippine side claimed that it had dismantled the Chinese interceptor network in accordance with the orders of its President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
However, soon after the video was released, the Philippine side's trick was exposed, and the Chinese coast guard department said that we had "taken the initiative to take back the blocking facilities and restore normal control" as early as the 23rd, while the Philippine side actually acted on the 25th, and its so-called "Chinese interception network" was completely nonsense. In fact, the fact that Scarborough Shoal belongs to China should have been recognized by the Philippines as early as 2012.
[Chinese fishermen besieged by the Philippines]
In April 2012, Philippine patrol vessels intercepted and interfered with 12 Chinese fishing vessels operating normally at Scarborough Shoal. Judging from the news photos reported at the time, the Philippine side insulted the Chinese fishermen to the fullest, not only stripping them of their shirts and throwing them on the deck of the Philippine ship to expose them to the sun, but also aimed the muzzle of the gun at the fishermen's heads. The unreasonable behavior of the Philippine side has completely ignited China's anger.
After more than two months of confrontation with the Philippine side, the Chinese side finally regained actual control of Scarborough Shoal and drove out the Philippine side that had illegally trespassed, and in order to protect the interests and safety of its own fishermen, the Chinese side also sent a number of 2,000-ton and 4,000-ton coast guard ships and a large number of maritime militia stationed here.
However, in the past two years, with Marcos Jr. taking office, the Philippine ambition has been rekindled, in addition to last year's "self-directed and self-acting" incident, in mid-January this year, a group of Filipino fishermen also broke into the waters around Scarborough Shoal to carry out illegal fishing activities, when the Chinese coast guard also sent a coast guard ship to warn them to leave; now the Philippine side has behaved more aggressively, directly sending Philippine military personnel to force landing on the reef of Scarborough Shoal.
[Ren'ai Reef beached and broken ship close to scrapping]
In fact, the Philippines' provocative actions on the issue of islands and reefs in the South China Sea are basically carried out by ships and aircraft, and few others dare to go to the islands and reefs. Obviously, even though they knew that they were heavily guarded by Chinese troops, they still had to force their way in, and I am afraid that these illegal reef landers had other motives than to "touch porcelain". The only explanation that makes sense is that the Philippine side is playing a trick of attacking the West. To put it simply, the Philippine side wants to use the Scarborough Shoal incident to divert people's attention and "treat the disease" of the broken ship on Ren'ai Jiao.
We are all already familiar with the origin of that "broken ship". It has been 24 years since it appeared on Second Thomas Shoal. As a dilapidated ship that is close to being scrapped and has been decommissioned, it has now entered the stage of "the last years of the wind and candles", if it is not repaired in time, it will not take long to scrap itself, and then China will pull out a "nail" without much effort, and the Philippines has no excuse to make trouble in the South China Sea, which is why in the face of the Philippine provocation at Ren'ai Jiao, China has been holding its ground, after all, there is no need to use fists to solve things that can be solved without effort.
[China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Issues Warning to the Philippines]
The Philippine side is also very aware of this, so it has tried every means to transport building materials to it, and even used air transportation and other methods before, but under the strict control of the Chinese side, it is obviously difficult for the Philippine side to repair the broken ship. Under these circumstances, the Philippine side's high-profile intrusion into Huangyan Dao is undoubtedly an attempt to attract China's attention, and if it succeeds, the Philippine side can take the opportunity to smuggle supplies to Ren'ai Jiao; if it does not succeed, the Philippine side may even have the opportunity to reoccupy Huangyan Dao, because after all, the previous Thitu Island was forcibly occupied by the Philippines when the officers and soldiers stationed on the island were sheltering from the typhoon.
However, the Philippine side's trick of "attacking the east and attacking the west" cannot hide from China's eyes. A few days ago, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement emphasizing once again that Scarborough Shoal has been China's inherent territory since ancient times, and it has never been within the territory of the Philippines from both a historical and legal perspective. The implication is that China will never give the Philippines a chance to make a fuss about Scarborough Shoal, and at the same time, China will not relax its protection of Ren'ai Jiao. The only thing that the Philippine side can deceive is themselves.
As early as the 1898 "US-Spain Peace Treaty" and the 1900 US-Spain Treaty on the Cession of Philippine Islands, the Philippine side has written clearly in black and white.
I hope that the Philippine side can understand that an island is not close to whoever is close to it, and as a country, it should act in accordance with international treaties. Whether it is Ren'ai Jiao or Scarborough Shoal, it is not something that the Philippine side can think about, China often says that when a friend comes, there is good wine, and when an enemy comes, there is a shotgun, and if the Philippine side insists on provoking China's bottom line, then the shotgun in China's hand will also pull the trigger at any time.