On 22 October 2023, two separate collisions took place near Second Thomas Shoal, an underwater feature that an international tribunal in 2016 ruled is part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. A China Coast Guard ship rammed a much smaller civilian vessel contracted by the Philippine Navy to resupply troops stationed aboard the BRP Sierra Madre.
The situation around Second Thomas highlights a key feature of China's foreign policy - its refusal to acknowledge that the Philippines or other small states have their own agency in disputes with Beijing. This worldview was aptly summed up in a piece by the nationalist Global Times, which concludes 'By escalating the tensions, the Philippines likely wants to draw support from the US, or the entire farce was staged by the US in the first place'.
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