China's Goodwill and Patience with the Philippines Are Not Endless After the Philippines has recently publicly denied the "gentlemen's agreement" and was slapped in the face by China with ironclad evidence, Manila has started a new political show.
On the 15th, about 200 people on five commercial fishing boats sailed from the Philippines to the waters of Scarborough Shoal to "defend their rights", and are expected to arrive at Scarborough Shoal on the 16th. Philippine officials sent coast guard ships to escort the so-called "civilian fleet," and some Western media quickly followed suit.
This is a very skillful operation, as we have seen in several incidents involving the Philippine side in the South China Sea. Before the departure, the Philippine Coast Guard deliberately emphasized that "they have nothing to do with the government", and the organizers also held high the guise of "civilian" and "peaceful". Such a vigorous foreshadowing, just "there is no silver three hundred taels here", reflects their knowledge that the attack on Huangyan Island is neither a civil act nor a peaceful move.
What they really did was to let the Filipino "fishermen" serve as a "background board", and by deliberately touching porcelain, they tried to interfere with the normal rights protection and law enforcement of the Chinese coast guard and the normal fishing of Chinese fishermen, and at the same time sold misery to the international community through the Western media, smeared China, and provoked a new round of friction and even confrontation between China and the Philippines at Scarborough Shoal.