{"id":5581,"date":"2014-03-30T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T12:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=5581"},"modified":"2014-03-31T10:52:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T02:52:14","slug":"philippine-supply-ship-evades-chinese-vessel-reaches-disputed-south-china-sea-shoal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/30\/philippine-supply-ship-evades-chinese-vessel-reaches-disputed-south-china-sea-shoal\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine supply ship evades Chinese vessel, reaches disputed South China Sea shoal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"disputed-south-china-sea-ma\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A\u00a0Philippine\u00a0government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard vessel and brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship used as a base by\u00a0Filipino\u00a0troops to bolster the country\u2019s territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s incident was witnessed by journalists who were invited by the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0military to accompany the resupply mission.<\/p>\n

It was a rare close-up look at the tensions in the waters and the determination of all sides to press their claims. China\u2019s growing assertiveness is alarming smaller nations that have competing territorial claims and worrying the United States, which is neutral in the disputes but jockeying for influence with Beijing in the region.<\/p>\n

About one hour away from Second Thomas Shoal, where the detachment is based, a Chinese coast guard ship marked \u201c1141\u201d twice crossed the bow of the smaller\u00a0Philippine\u00a0vessel in an attempt to stop it from proceeding. Another tailed the\u00a0Filipino\u00a0boat.<\/p>\n

The Chinese radioed the Filipinos, telling them to stop. \u201cYou will take full responsibility for the consequences of your action,\u201d the voice said in English.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Republic of the\u00a0Philippines,\u201d replied\u00a0Philippine\u00a0navy Lt. Ferdinand Gato, who was in charge of the supply mission. \u201cWe are here to provision the troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

The marines on board the supply boat waved the \u201cV\u201d for peace sign toward the Chinese vessel.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Filipino\u00a0captain manoeuvred his vessel to shallow waters where the Chinese ships couldn\u2019t sail to reach the marooned vessel, BRP Sierra Madre, which has become an awkward symbol of\u00a0Philippine\u00a0sovereignty in the remote offshore territory.<\/p>\n

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that the\u00a0Philippines\u2019 action was to \u201chype up\u201d its claim to the area and didn\u2019t change the fact that it was China\u2019s. He said in a statement that the move wouldn\u2019t affect China\u2019s resolve to safeguard its territory.<\/p>\n

On March 9, Chinese vessels blocked a resupply mission to the shoal, called Ayungin by the\u00a0Philippines.<\/p>\n

Philippine\u00a0air force planes have airdropped life-sustaining food and water at least twice since then.<\/p>\n

The confrontation at sea was witnessed by Associated Press journalists and more than a dozen other media members who were invited by the\u00a0Philippine\u00a0military to board the government vessel to show what Manila has described as \u201cChina\u2019s bullying\u201d in the disputed waters.<\/p>\n

As they approached the shoal, one of the marines raised the\u00a0Philippine\u00a0flag on the supply ship. Once inside the shoal, the marines and the crew applauded and exchanged high-fives.<\/p>\n

Gato said he was determined to complete his supply mission despite the Chinese presence. \u201cI will not let them stop us because our marines will starve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The supply ship carried about 10 tons of food, including rice and canned goods, and water, Gato said. The provisions were placed in sacks and transferred to the marooned ship using ropes pulled with pulleys. The two vessels were surrounded by the calm turquoise waters of the shoal.<\/p>\n

China claims almost the entire South China Sea. The two countries were in a two-month standoff at the Scarborough Shoal to the north, which the Chinese eventually occupied after\u00a0Philippine\u00a0ships left the area because of a storm in 2012.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0has questioned China\u2019s claims before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.<\/p>\n

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims over the territory, which is believe to be rich in oil and gas and is also a major shipping lane.<\/p>\n

AP writer Louise Watt in Beijing contributed to this report.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0Philippine\u00a0government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard vessel and brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-jim-gomez","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}