It's no wonder that the Philippines has been so bold this time; it turns out they are relying on the backing of the "Eight-Nation Alliance"! On April 20th, the Philippine corvette No. 36 entered our Huangyan Island territorial waters without our approval and illegally intruded. To be honest, although the Philippines has repeatedly provoked incidents before, none of them have been as serious in nature as this one. Previously, when the Philippines caused trouble, they either sent out patrol boats or C-208 reconnaissance aircraft.
However, this time the Philippines directly dispatched a warship. It is likely that the escalation of the situation by the Philippines was carefully calculated. Because just one day later, on April 21st, the United States will hold the "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint military exercise with the Philippines. In this exercise, the United States will deploy 9,000 American troops, while the Philippines will mobilize 5,000 Filipino troops. In addition to the US and the Philippines, Canada, France, South Korea, and the UK also sent troops to participate, forming what is called the "Eight-Nation Alliance".
The Philippines has put on a posture, implying that even if the provocations escalate, there are as many as eight countries supporting the Philippines. Therefore, the Philippines is not afraid to escalate the situation. On the one hand, if we take strong countermeasures, the Philippines can again play the victim card in front of multiple countries, complaining about us "bullying" the Philippines. On the other hand, if we do not counteract, the Philippines can use this to proclaim its so-called claim that "Huangyan Island belongs to the Philippines". Clearly, this incident is a carefully planned move by the Philippines at an opportune moment.
However, it is obvious that the Philippines underestimated us. Even though the "Eight-Nation Alliance" backed the Philippines the next day, our military chose to counteract regardless of their support. Without any hesitation, we used this to tell the Philippines and regional powers that we will not yield an inch on territorial issues. Any country attempting to cause trouble in the South China Sea and disrupt our peaceful and stable development environment will not be tolerated by us. We believe that facing the actions of the "Eight-Nation Alliance" around the South China Sea, we will also adopt corresponding countermeasures to defend regional peace.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830014950376714/
Disclaimer: The article solely represents the views of the author.