South China Sea: Philippines won’t let China remove military outpost on disputed shoal, ‘these are red lines’, navy commander

Philippine officials summoned a Chinese Embassy diplomat in Manila to convey a strong protest over the confrontation Tuesday off Second Thomas Shoal. A small Filipino navy contingent has stood guard on a long-marooned warship that has served as an outpost in the shoal since the 1990s.

Philippine navy Commodore Roy Trinidad also said Filipino forces will not allow any structure to be erected in another hotly contested South China Sea area, Scarborough Shoal. China surrounded the vast fishing atoll northwest of the Philippines with coastguard and suspected militia ships in 2012 after a tense stand-off between Chinese and Philippine ships.

“These are red lines for the Philippines, to the armed forces,” Trinidad said at a news conference in Manila when asked what Chinese actions would be unacceptable to the Philippines in the disputed waters.

The latest flare-up in the long-simmering disputes began when Chinese coastguard and suspected militia ships shadowed, surrounded and blocked two Philippine coastguard ships which were escorting two civilian motorboats manned by Filipino navy personnel.

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Chinese floating barrier blocks entrance to Philippine ships at South China Sea flashpoint

They were on the way to deliver supplies and replacement navy and marine personnel to the BRP Sierra Madre, a navy warship that was deliberately grounded by the Philippine military in the late 1990s in the shallows of Second Thomas Shoal to serve as a territorial outpost.

China also claims the area and has surrounded the shoal with coastguard, navy and suspected militia ships to prevent Filipino forces from delivering construction materials to reinforce the Sierra Madre, which is encrusted with rust and slightly tilting but remains an actively