After China drove 0.55 million tons into the South China Sea, the Philippines also disclosed that China had launched an "island-building project" at Xianbin Reef. Let's take a look. According to Reuters, on May 11, the Philippine president's office issued a statement saying that it had deployed two ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, accusing China of building "artificial islands" there.
Later, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman further said that China may carry out "small-scale land reclamation" activities at Xianbin Reef, and dozens of Chinese ships have already appeared at Xianbin Reef, including research vessels and naval vessels, and the Philippine Coast Guard will go to the area and maintain a "long-term presence" at Xianbin Reef. In addition, the Philippine side also accused China of "illegal activities" in building the island.
What do you think? On the one hand, all the current signs show that the possibility of China and the Philippines trying to resolve the South China Sea issue through dialogue is getting smaller and smaller.
Recently, the Philippines not only refused to admit the "gentlemen's agreement" reached with China on the control of Ren'ai Jiao, but also held a 19-day "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint exercise with the United States and Australia, which was "the largest in history", with 16,000 troops dispatched by all sides, and placed three exercise sites in areas close to the Taiwan Strait, Scarborough Shoal and Nansha Islands, and used a Chinese-made ship as a "target ship" in the exercise and carried out a sinking exercise.
Although the Philippine side said that such an arrangement was "not intentional", the signal was also a little too obvious. Moreover, the Philippine side's provocation has also changed from initially focusing on one point at Ren'ai Jiao to launching a full-scale provocation against Ren'ai Jiao, Scarborough Shoal, Tiexian Jiao, and Xianbin Jiao, and threatening to the outside world that "if there are Philippine casualties, the US military will be invited to intervene", that is, to activate the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty", which is obviously aimed at escalating the situation.
It is said that the ship sent by the Philippine side to Xianbin Jiao this time is not its coast guard ship, but a warship built by Japan for the Philippines, which is the most powerful presence in the Philippine Navy. With the support of the United States and Japan, it cannot be ruled out that the Philippine side will provoke a bigger dispute at Xianbin Reef and directly interfere in China's "island building" process. If this happens, there is a possibility that there will be friction between the two sides, because the Philippine Navy has already escalated the situation by dispatching warships, and only the coast guard has intervened before.
On the other hand, judging from China's recent developments, after the Philippines still stepped up its provocations, China has also begun to show a tough attitude, after all, it is impossible to back down on the issue of safeguarding sovereignty.
First, during the joint exercise between the United States, the Philippines and Australia, the Chinese side drove the 055 "Zunyi Ship" into the South China Sea, accompanied by the 052C "Haikou Ship", the 052D "Kunming Ship" and the 054A "Xianning Ship".
Just take the vertical hair unit as an example, and it will be very clear -- there are 112 "Zunyi ships," 48 "Haikou ships," 64 "Kunming ships," and 32 "Xianning ships," a total of 256 vertical hair units, and their missiles cover anti-ship, air defense, anti-submarine, and land-oriented attacks, and they can carry out all-dimensional strikes against the enemy.
Second, judging from the information disclosed by the Philippine side, China's "island-building" incident may not be groundless. Previously, when the Philippines launched a full-scale provocation in the South China Sea, many voices called on China to resume the island-building issue and give the Philippines a little color. Now it seems that the Chinese side has no patience and no need to endure it anymore.
So, where is Sembin Reef located? According to the data, it is located on the east side of Ren'ai Jiao, which means that it is closer than the distance between Ren'ai Jiao and the Philippines, and only 200 kilometers away from Philippine Palawan.
What is even more noteworthy is that when China responded to such issues, it did not directly deny "island building". The spokesman said that Xianbin Jiao is part of China's Nansha Islands, and China has indisputable sovereignty over Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters, and China does not accept unreasonable accusations from the Philippine side. In other words, the sovereignty of Xianbin Jiao lies with China, and what China does on its own territory is entirely its own business, and the Philippines has no right to interfere. Against this backdrop, if the Philippines intervenes arbitrarily, China will probably not be polite, so we might as well wait and see.