This can be said to be China's great victory in the South China Sea, when the Philippine Coast Guard ship 9701 withdrew from the Chinese Xianbin Reef Lagoon. This means that the farce staged by the Philippine Coast Guard ship 9701, which invaded China's Xianbin Reef on April 17 this year and illegally stayed there for nearly five months, has come to an end for the time being.
In mid-April, the Philippine 9701 ship was stranded at Xianbin Reef, and it is clear that the Philippines hopes to reproduce the Sierra Madre that sinks on Ren'ai Shoal and build it into a semi-permanent floating platform and become a new type of "beaching". As long as the ship leaves without anchor, it has the autonomy to "sit on the beach" at any moment of its choosing. The Philippines may want to hijack its allies to create a fait accompli by taking advantage of the US-Japan-Philippines joint exercises, or even observe the development of major regional developments in the Taiwan Strait, and implement on-site "beaching" in times of crisis, forming a permanent military outpost.
The Philippine plan is to achieve joint anchorage in the Sembin Reef lagoon and build a semi-permanent forward base based on this, which is equivalent to building a floating platform first and then gradually encroaching. The Philippines is using the 9701 ship as a material rallying point, stockpiling a large number of barrels of fuel oil, drinking water, cement, and large building materials in preparation for the establishment of a permanent base.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is even ready to use force, and according to the latest AIS information, the Nanhai Rescue 116 tugboat has sailed from the southeast of the lagoon to the northwest region, specifically closer to the Philippine stranded ship, which is now only 1.3 kilometers away, basically next to each other. In the Xianbin Reef Lake, the tugboats of our navy, the Nantuo 175 and Nantuo 185 (both improved models of the 2,600-horsepower medium-sized long-sea rescue tugboat, the actual horsepower is greater) also came. Three tugboats gather at Sembin Reef.
The Philippine side is fantasizing that the U.S. military will intervene to support, you know, the chief of staff of the Philippine Army, Brauner, asked Paparo, the commander of the U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific, for assistance. Paparo claimed that the U.S. military had multiple options for supporting the Philippines for resupply, but he declined to provide specific information, saying that he would jointly implement the options after consultation with the Philippine side under the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty if necessary.
This means that United States already has the intention of interfering in the dispute between China and the Philippines on islands and reefs, and the last time the 9701 collided with a Chinese coast guard ship, the US military helicopter was monitoring the airspace, and this speech is United States to show China: If China does not give in on the issue of Xianbin Jiao and reefs, then the US military will get involved in the next step, and the US military will join forces with the Philippines to supply, and then you will be ugly.
The US military's statement has given the Philippine military great confidence, and we can look at this sentence from the coast guard: The Philippine side has failed in many attempts to organize forcible transportation and replenishment. In other words, in order to break through our encirclement and transport supplies to 9701, the Philippine side has carried out many operations. But they were all intercepted by our side.
Many people may not know how much psychological pressure the personnel on the Philippine ship have endured after being surrounded by our army.
The U.S. military reversed its previous attitude and said that it would not send warships to escort Philippine ships to directly intrude into China's territorial waters and reefs, but would operate outside China's territorial waters, in other words, the U.S. military would not take action, but would "condemn" China's actions through public statements.
The report quoted so-called sources as saying that "the crew of the Philippine Coast Guard 9701 relied on rice porridge for several weeks, and did not eat two days before the evacuation." Pictures released by Philippine media show that several crew members were carried ashore on stretchers on drips.
It can be said that the conspiracy of Philippine ships to shore the lagoon at Sembin Reef has been completely foiled, and China has successfully avoided armed conflict. Sun Tzu said in the Art of War that a soldier who surrenders without a fight is the best of the best.
Once the 9701 ship is withdrawn, the Chinese coast guard will not allow the Philippine ship to approach Xianbin Reef any longer, and the next step is to maintain regular patrols.
Judging from the relevant movements of the Philippine side, this is unlikely to be the end of its continued troubles in the South China Sea, and the Philippines will definitely continue to make trouble in the South China Sea. For China, the next step is to replicate the model of Xianbin Reef at Ren'ai Jiao, but the ships at Ren'ai Jiao can't go by themselves, and it is estimated that we will have to help dismantle it!
Now the Philippine media are desperate, and they themselves are worried that the next step will be the shipwreck of Ren'ai Jiao, and I am afraid that they will soon do it. United States' previous promises have come to naught, which has fully exposed the naivety and ignorance of Philippine politicians.
It can be said that China's defense of the rights at Xianbin Reef this time, like the previous struggle over Scarborough Shoal, has become a successful model, and the experience will inevitably radiate to the surrounding areas.
As early as the 1950s, when the Taiwan authorities withdrew from Xisha and abandoned most of the islands and reefs stationed in Nansha, the Philippines had the idea of using the so-called "terra nullius" and "undetermined sovereignty" principles in the principles of international law to send so-called "non-governmental figures" to directly occupy the islands to "claim sovereignty," and then the authorities would make a decision. In order to change the status quo of the Nansha Islands, whose sovereignty has been determined, to "dispute".
And the current operation at Xianbin Jiao shows that China can achieve the goal of bringing the other side to its knees through gradual encirclement and containment without using force at all, after all, China's current layout in the South China Sea is enough for us to deal with any situation.
According to Philippine media reports, more and more Chinese coast guard vessels, warships and fishing boats have appeared near Thitu Island and other Philippine-occupied islands. This makes the Philippines nervous, the Philippines has occupied these islands for decades, has done a lot of infrastructure construction, and if the Chinese side also encircles the islands and expells them, the Philippines has little way to deal with it.
Whether it is the broken ship under the storm of Ren'ai Jiao, or the miscellaneous soldiers still entrenched in Thitu Island, they will definitely wait for the situation to be completely resolved after the reversal, and all this will be recorded in history.