The Philippines say they have sent new supplies to a faraway location they believe belongs to them in the South China Sea.
Manila says that Beijing tried to stop and disturb the supply mission, but they were not successful.
Chinese ships used water cannons to stop a Philippine supply mission from reaching Filipino troops at the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands.
Manila is using an old navy ship with a small number of soldiers to support its claim.
The embassy of China in Manila didn’t respond right away to a request for comment.
Beijing says that they own almost the whole South China Sea, including the Spratlys, but the Philippines also says that they own part of it too.
The ocean is a place where there are lots of fish and people think there might be a lot of oil and gas.
Supply missions to the shoal have caused a lot of problems between the two people arguing over it.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan also say that some parts of the sea belong to them. This sea is a very important route for trade, where around $3. 37tn or 21% of all global trade goes through each year.
On August 22, two ships brought new supplies to Second Thomas Shoal. They were protected by two coast guard ships. This was announced by the Philippines’ National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea.
Manila uses the name West Philippine Sea to talk about the part of the South China Sea that is under its control.
The task force said that they will continue to send supplies to the shoal regularly.
The United States, which is a country that has a treaty with the Philippines, is worried about the actions that China is taking in the South China Sea. The Philippines has described these actions as dangerous.
In addition to using water cannons, Chinese ships are said to have used strong lasers to temporarily blind the crews of Philippine vessels.
China tried many times to stop supply missions to Second Thomas Shoal. This was an important part of the Philippines’ winning case at the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2014.
The court decided that China’s argument using old maps is not supported by evidence. But Beijing has not accepted the ruling and instead made fake islands on reefs that are being argued over.
China’s foreign ministry asked the Philippines to take away the ship on Second Thomas Shoal because they said Manila had promised multiple times to move the warship that is illegally stuck on the reef. It didn’t say who kept the promise.
The previous leader, Rodrigo Duterte, was the president for six years until mid 2022. He changed Manila’s partnerships to focus on China and Russia, which caused problems with their long-standing friend, the United States.
But the next leader, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, made the relationship with the US strong again and gave American soldiers more permission to use Philippine military bases in early 2023.
This made China upset because having more US military in the Philippines completes the chain of alliances in the region from South Korea and Japan to Australia.