Recently, the situation in the South China Sea has heated up again, and in the face of the repeated crazy provocations of the Philippines, China has issued an ultimatum to the Philippines on the issue of beaching and shipbreaking at Ren'ai Jiao! The Southern Theater even made a heavy statement: "China demands that the Philippines withdraw the illegal beached warship"! This is China's ultimatum to the Philippines.
This may be China's first salute and then soldier, and it is also the last kind words to persuade you. If the Philippine side does not hear and turns a deaf ear to this, then the next step will definitely be China's escalation of countermeasures, including "helping the Philippines remove the broken ship"! This is also the first time in recent years that the Chinese government has officially stated that the broken ship of the Philippines on the mainland's Ren'ai Jiao must be withdrawn as soon as possible!
In addition, 83 days have passed since April 18 this year, when the Philippine Coast Guard ship No. 9701 "Magbanua" illegally entered our Senbin Reef and stayed in it illegally! On the 12th, the Ministry of Defense of the Mainland issued a heavy statement, demanding that the Philippines immediately withdraw the ships illegally stranded at Xianbin Reef! Attention: "Immediately"! The meaning couldn't be more obvious: if you don't go by yourself, we'll help you go!
So far, in the 83-day period, the Philippine Coast Guard has dispatched other vessels to resupply the illegally stranded Coast Guard vessel. This move by the Philippines is obvious, and it is intended to concoct a second incident of "illegal beaching of warships at Ren'ai Jiao" at Xianbin Reef. Because the wrecked ship on Ren'ai Reef has rotted to the point of crumbling, and it will not last long before it will disintegrate and sink.
According to foreign media reports, there are sufficient signs and evidence that since Philippine ships have been stranded on Xianbin Reef for more than 80 days, they have secretly transported construction materials to the inner lake of Xianbin Reef, and even there are signs of building permanent facilities on Xianbin Reef. Some scholars have analyzed and speculated that this may be the Philippines' preparations for starting land reclamation and building a permanent base on Sembin Reef.
Geographically, the location and value of Sembin Reef is greater than that of Second Thomas Reef. Xianbin Reef is located on the south side of Lile Bank, the reef is about 23 kilometers long from east to west, 7 kilometers wide from north to south, and the reef area is very broad, which can reach 84.2 square kilometers, which is the largest reef area in the waters on the east side of the Nansha Islands on the mainland, which is twice as large as Mischief Island. Located only 130 kilometers from Palawan Island in the Philippines, Sembin Reef is the only way for the Philippines to enter the waters of Second Thomas Reef from Palawan.
The reef area of Senbin Reef is twice the size of Mischief Island, and the eastern reef flat is densely populated, which is suitable for reclamation into a large artificial island with an area of 15 square kilometers, easily surpassing Mischief Island. The northern side of Xianbin Reef is only 50 kilometers away from the Lile Basin, which currently has proven oil reserves of up to 6 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of 55.6 billion cubic meters, making it one of the four major cornucopia in the South China Sea.
The Philippines' greed for the mainland's Xianbin Reef in recent years has been even more fierce than that of Ren'ai Jiao, which is why the United States can easily provoke the Philippines to make trouble in the South China Sea. To put it bluntly, behind all this is the greed of the Philippines that should not be there.
On the 12th, it was the eighth anniversary of the "South China Sea Arbitration Case" concocted by the United States manipulation and the Philippines as a pawn, and the Philippine government also held an event to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the South China Sea Arbitration at the headquarters of its Western Military Region, during which United States Ambassador to the Philippines Carlson · Mary Kay attended and spoke, "United States will continue to firmly support the Philippines' claims in the South China Sea!" On the same day, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken even named and said harshly, "demanding that China must abide by the results of the South China Sea arbitration."
However, no matter how much the United States clamores, it does not practice fake tricks. No matter how much the Philippines jumps up and down, it is useless, and the mainland's firm position on the so-called arbitration farce is: not to participate, not to accept, not to recognize! In 2016, two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups wanted to come to the South China Sea to forcibly enforce the arbitration, but they were directly driven away by our three fleets in cooperation with the Strategic Rocket Force. Eight years have passed, and the strength of our military has already advanced by leaps and bounds, while the US military has stood still and even declined.