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A Philippine navy commander described a daring anti-China mission in 1999.
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Vice Admiral Eduardo Santos deliberately ran a ship aground to create an obstacle in the South China Sea.
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China claims the vast sea as its own territory, a claim fiercely contested by its neighbors and the West.
About 25 years ago, a Philippine naval commander ran his own ship aground.
But decades later, the officer revealed that the action was a plan to disrupt China, not a random disaster.
The rusting ship from World War II, BRP Sierra Madreis still present in the South China Sea. Although it cannot sail, it serves as a key outpost for the Philippine military in the Second Thomas Shoal, which both China and the Philippines claim for themselves.
The ship has proven to be an obstacle for China, which has increased its presence in the disputed sea despite a court in The Hague rule against their territorial claims from 2016.
Speak with The guardVice Admiral Eduardo Santos recalls pretending to the Chinese ambassador that it was an accident.
“I said, ‘Well, it was supposed to be on its way (to a mission), and it got stuck.’”
According to Santos, he opposed the early stages of China’s “creeping invasion” of areas claimed by the Philippines.
By sinking the ship in the previously uninhabited St. Thomas Shoal, a possible Chinese occupation could be staved off for a little longer, he said.
The South China Sea is a heavily trafficked and resource-rich waterway, and the subject of one of the world’s most contentious territorial disputes.
The ocean does not belong to any country, except for narrow strips of territorial waters.
China has long sought to stake a claim to the South China Sea by building and developing small headlands to expand its influence.
China now claims a large part of the sea as its own. According to its neighbors and Western countries such as the US, this claim is unfounded.
Tensions between China and the Philippines over the sea, with confrontations on the water becoming increasingly serious.
Earlier this month, a Chinese coast guard vessel, the largest in the world, drop anchor in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
In June the Chinese coast guard boarded a Philippine shipwith video footage showing the sailors being threatened with axes and other “stabbing and pointed” weapons.
CCG personnel forcibly attached ropes to drag the AFP RHIB, while threatening to injure an AFP soldier with a pickaxe. They also used blaring sirens to create chaos, disrupt communications and distract the attention of AFP troops, thereby worsening the hostile and dangerous situation. photo.twitter.com/a8cPaGGH8j
— Armed Forces of the Philippines (@TeamAFP) June 19, 2024
An expert told BI at the time that China planned to “change the status quo by force,” using aggressive but non-lethal measures designed to gradually “wear down” its neighbors.
Other acts of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea this year include: alleged cyanide poisoning of the disputed waters and apparently deliberately collided with a Philippine ship while bombarding it with a water cannon.
Read the original article at Business insider