Chinese Coast Guard Comes Within Feet of Ramming Philippines Vessel
Chinese Coast Guard Comes Within Feet of Ramming Philippines Vessel - A Chinese Coast Guard ship came within three feet of ramming a Philippines Coast Guard vessel.

Chinese Coast Guard Comes Within Feet of Ramming Philippines Vessel
A Chinese Coast Guard ship came within three feet of ramming a Philippines Coast Guard vessel.
The Chinese vessel cut across the bow of the Filipino vessel, the BRP Sindangan, ultimately passing just feet away as the Filipino crew threw off the engines and attempted to reverse to avoid a catastrophe.
The Chinese Coast Guard vessel then proceeded to harass the Filipino crew, demanding over a megaphone that the vessel leave Chinese territory.
The incident took place just 100 miles from the Philippines, and nearly 900 miles away from the Chinese mainland.
“In accordance with international and Philippine national laws we are proceeding,” a Filipino crew member responds to the Chinese vessel.
Modern-Day Conquest
The incident is just the latest attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to use its military to illegally expand its territory and steal natural resources across the South China Sea.In another incident in late September, a CCP vessel assaulted the crew of a Filipino ship with high-powered water cannons. Phones in the area were pinged with the message “welcome to China,” though China does not actually control any territory for hundreds of miles.
The CCP claims that nearly the entire South China Sea is its own, however, and is now using its navy and coast guard, the largest in the world, to forcibly dominate the region, effectively conquering the territory in spite of all international laws, rules, and norms.
China’s communist leadership condemned the Filipino mission, saying the vessel “intruded” in its territory.
The confrontations between China and the Philippines have happened frequently near Mischief Reef, one of dozens of artificially constructed islands the CCP has created in recent years to illegally expand its territory and military reach throughout the South China Sea.
The reef now hosts a bevy of military facilities, including radar and communications facilities, runways and hangars for fighter jets, and surface-to-air missiles.
The long-term goal of the facilities, according to Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), is to enable the CCP to project military power beyond the First Island Chain, which stretches from Japan to Indonesia.
“Their effort within the First Island Chain, in the Spratly Island chain, is all about military dominance,” Mr. Wittman said.
“These are airstrips, they are radars, they are surface-to-air missiles. There’s only one intention for that, and that is to push others out of that region.”
Mr. Wittman noted that he received a briefing last month about CCP activities against non-Chinese vessels in the region. Among them was an incident in which Chinese vessels interfered with a Philippines vessel as it attempted to do repairs on its own facility.
Likewise, when U.S. vessels pass through the South China Sea now, he said, Chinese vessels actively try to interfere with their navigation and prevent them from reaching their destination.
“When our vessels go into those areas, it’s not just other Chinese military vessels; it’s scores of other vessels that surround our vessels to try to impede our navigation through the area,” Mr. Wittman said.