The "100-ship raid" campaign in which the Philippines threatened to make a big deal ended hastily.
Recently, the "Atinitto Alliance," a non-governmental organization on the Philippine side, wanted to hold a so-called "regatta" on Scarborough Shoal, claiming that "100 ships raided" Scarborough Shoal. Rafaela David, the initiator of the event, said that with the participation of nearly 100 boats, not only will a "Peace and Unity Boat Race" be held in the waters of Scarborough Shoal, but also some markers or sea buoys will be installed in the area.
The Philippine side is also very honest about this, claiming that this is "the legitimate exercise of the rights of Philippine citizens and the sovereignty of the Philippines in accordance with international law".
So, on May 15, hundreds of fishing boats, large and small, waving the Philippine flag, sailed towards China's Scarborough Shoal. Of course, according to tradition, there are a number of so-called "volunteers", "international observers", "international media".
However, the so-called "100 boats" in the Philippines are mostly small fishing boats, which are often equipped with two simple pontoons on both sides of the hull in order to improve their wave resistance, which are shaped like crabs, commonly known as "crab boats". Scarborough Shoal is not far from the mainland of the Philippines, but it is more than 200 kilometers.
Not surprisingly, the mighty "100-ship fleet" drove to a position about 20 nautical miles away from the Philippines, and after receiving the "condolences and gifts," they went home. Only five relatively large fishing boats, carrying 200 activists, remained on their way to the waters off Scarborough Shoal. Philippine officials are apparently well prepared for this, sending two coast guard planes and three coast guard ships to escort the ship, including the Bagakai, which was sprayed by Chinese coast guard water cannons at Scarborough Shoal at the end of last month.
In this way, the Chinese side seems to be in a dilemma. After all, private fishing boats do not have official attributes, and as long as the Chinese coast guard ships drive them away, the Philippines will have "new materials" all over the world to shout and continue to sell miserably to win sympathy. But if China doesn't take action, the Philippines will only get even more carried away and plan the next game quickly.
However, the Philippines miscalculated, and China knows exactly what the United States and the Philippines want to do. Moreover, this is not the first time that the Chinese side has learned this approach, and since the Philippines wants to play, let's have fun with it.
As a result, the Philippine fleet, which was trying to invade Scarborough Shoal, encountered the first cordon of Chinese coast guard ships 4203, 4108, and 4109 about 45 nautical miles west of Luzon. When a Philippine coast guard plane approached Scarborough Shoal, it directly received a radio warning from the Chinese Navy's 175 "Yinchuan ship" to drive away, and in addition, many patriotic fishermen drove dozens of fishing boats to the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal, ready to help the Chinese coast guard stop Philippine boats. Under the heavy checkpoints, these "crab boats" have no chance to take advantage of them.
And more importantly, just yesterday, many domestic official media announced: "The coast guard officially launched normalized training at Huangyan Island", it doesn't matter whether the training is carried out or not, and it doesn't matter what subjects are trained, what matters is the word "normalization", what does it mean that the Chinese coast guard officially launched normalized training at Huangyan Island?
At that time, the Japanese hyped up the issue of the Diaoyu Islands, and under repeated provocations, China began to patrol the Diaoyu Islands on a regular basis, and the Japanese personnel were driven away once and for a while, not in a day or two, but in a multi-year cruise. Now, China will also train regularly at Scarborough Shoal, which means that there will be enough Chinese forces around Scarborough Shoal for a long time, and even if this incident passes, the military power will not disappear.
It should be pointed out that compared to Ren'ai Jiao, Scarborough Shoal may be of higher strategic significance to China.
First, Scarborough Shoal is only 222 kilometers away from the Philippine mainland in the east and about 350 kilometers away from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. At the same time, it is less than 700 kilometers away from Woody Island in the east and Subi Reef in the southeast, and these three points are equivalent to forming an "iron triangle" of mutual support in the South China Sea, firmly holding the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands, and Zhongsha Islands together.
Second, Scarborough Shoal is the only reef in the Spratly Islands that is exposed to the water, and the weight of the word "island" is obviously different from that of "reef", to put it bluntly, if China is carrying out large-scale infrastructure projects in the South China Sea, such as radar stations, airports, docks, etc., Scarborough Shoal will be the first choice in terms of natural conditions.
In other words, if the Philippines does not want to give face, continues to act as a proxy for bloc confrontation, and repeatedly jumps sideways in the South China Sea, then China's regular training in the South China Sea is indispensable, and the "blowing and filling" work in Scarborough Shoal and other places will naturally be slowly put on the agenda.
Of course, China is not like the United States and the Philippines, which engage in those conspiracies and tricks, and if you want to play, we will play them in an honest manner.