Beijing: The Chinese Coast Guard has taken control of a contested reef near a large Philippin military outpost in the Southern China Sea, according to Beijing's state media, adding to long-standing territorial tensions with Manila.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the whole Sea of southern China and has taken away from competing affirmations from other regional countries as well as an international decision that its position has no legal basis.
China and the Philippines have signed up in months confrontations in disputed watersAnd Manila is currently participating in the scanning joint military exercises With the United States that Beijing criticized as a destabilizer.
The Chinese Coast Guard “implemented maritime control” on the Tiexian reef, also known as Sandy Cay, in mid-April, reported on Saturday April 26.
The tiny sandbank, which is part of the Spratly islands, is near the island of Thitu, also called PAG-ASA and the site of a Philippine military installation.
The video surveillance said that the Coast Guard landed on Sandy Cay to “exercise sovereignty and jurisdiction” on the reef, perform an “inspection” and “collect video evidence concerning the illegal activities of the Philippine part”.
The diffuser published a photograph of five people dressed in black standing on uninhabited reef like a dark inflatable boat stamped in neighboring water.
Another blow has shown that four Coast Guard managers posing with a national flag on the white surface of the reef, in what CCTV has described as a “vow of sovereignty”.
The group “also” cleaned plastic bottles, wooden sticks and other debris and garbage on the reef, “said the diffuser.
