The Philippine navy inherited the former U.S. tank-landing ship USS Harnett County in 1976, and ran it deliberately aground at Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The Sierra Madre is now effectively a shipwreck, but the Philippine military has not decommissioned it. This makes the ship an extension of the government and means any attack on the ship is tantamount to an assault against the Philippines. Manila deploys civilian boats with a fresh batch of marines and 10 tons of food for resupply. In a bid to draw global attention to what Philippine officials have called China’s bullying tactics, they have invited more than a dozen journalists, TV cameramen and photographers to come along on the 30-hour-plus journey from the Philippine mainland.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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Wait, so they put a boat on a strip of land and now claim it their territory, because the ship is not officially decommissioned, despite being a shipwreck (and thus useless as a boat)? Am I missing something here?
They put a boat on a strip of their land in Philippine waters.
So basically deliberate provocation.
The current Marcos government is a shift towards the United States and is gladly offering up The Philippines, a neocolony of the United States, as a forward base for the "containment" of China. This includes a reversal in both policy and propaganda when it comes to the South China Sea.
Gee, I wonder why? Why would they be afraid of a country preparing to conquer new teritory by force?
You think the Marcos government returned from partial alignment to the full alignment with the previous neocolonial regime under the thumb of the primary global superpower that already occupies their country and has done so for over 100 years because "China scary"?
lmao
Wtf even is that boat... look at it... it's like someone in post-apocalyptia managed to get an abandoned ship up and running.
The article says "Chinese forces seized two Philippine rubber boats that were delivering food and other supplies to a military outpost". Maybe the pictured boat is the "military outpost", but nobody who sees it wants to board it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The United States renewed a warning Tuesday that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, a treaty ally, a day after the hourslong hostilities in Second Thomas Shoal.
Five of the injured sailors were rescued by one of two Philippine coast guard patrol ships that were waiting at a distance to back up the navy’s supply mission at the shoal.
The two rubber supply boats were towed away by Chinese coast guard personnel and then abandoned after being damaged and emptied of their contents, including an unspecified number of rifles, the two officials said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell discussed China’s actions with his Philippine counterpart, Maria Theresa Lazaro, in a telephone call.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said Monday night that his country’s armed forces would resist “China’s dangerous and reckless behavior” which “contravenes their statements of good faith and decency.”
Several other incidents have occurred in recent months near Second Thomas Shoal, which is less than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the nearest Philippine coast and is where the BRP Sierra Madre, now encrusted with rust, was deliberately grounded in 1999 to create a territorial outpost.
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