China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which includes Second Thomas Shoal, and deploys hundreds of vessels there to patrol the waters and swarm reefs.
Several countries have claims in the strategic waters of the South China Sea but one is aggressively muscling for the rights to everything above and below the water.
Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Manila says China’s coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippines ships patrolling the waters.
They also regularly attempt to disrupt re-supply operations to the tiny Philippines garrison on Second Thomas Shoal, according to Manila.
The handful of marines from the Philippines deployed on the BRP Sierra Madre depend upon those resupply missions to survive their remote assignment.
In 2014, a Chinese blockade forced the Philippines to drop supplies in by air.
The Philippines coast guard fears China will seek to occupy Second Thomas Shoal if the military detachment leaves.
Why does all this matter?
The South China Sea is seen as a powder keg and many fear a miscalculation or accident could ignite a military conflict.
The Philippines is poorly armed, but the United States has said it would defend its long-time ally in the South China Sea under a decades-old mutual defence pact.
The US has no territorial claim over the waters, but has persisted in conducting its own patrols there, angering Beijing.
Washington says this is to ensure what it terms “freedom of navigation” in the sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
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Article URL : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-10/south-china-sea-wreck-sierra-madre-shipwreck-philippines-spratly/102710174