Chinese ships have repeatedly rammed Philippine ships in the South China Sea. The U.S. has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which could lead to American intervention.

An escalating series of clashes in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China could draw the U.S., which has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, into the conflict.

A 60 Minutes crew got a close look at the tense situation when traveling on a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was rammed by the Chinese Coast Guard.

China has repeatedly rammed Philippine ships and blasted them with water cannons over the last two years. There are ongoing conversations between Washington and Manila about which scenarios would trigger U.S. involvement, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview.

“I really don’t know the end state,” Teodoro said. “All I know is that we cannot let them get away with what they’re doing.”

China as “the proverbial schoolyard bully”

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, through which more than $3 trillion in goods flow annually. But in 2016, an international tribunal at the Hague ruled the Philippines has exclusive economic rights in a 200-mile zone that includes the area where the ship with the 60 Minutes team on board got rammed.

China does not recognize the international tribunal’s ruling.

  • @UnderpantsWeevilEnglish
    -24•2 days ago

    Americans will bitch and cry about Chinese propaganda, then eat Pentagon press briefs up with a spoon and call you racist for questioning a headline.

    You will never see China Coast Guard vessel helps rescue a Philippine fishing boat in distress near Huangyan Dao ora far more generic Two foreign-flagged ships collide off Corregidor Island, 2 dead. You’ll never have folks ask why these Philippine vessels are running aground and crashing into one another so often. Because that might suggest a problem with the enormously overstressed fisheries and ship channels all through the Pacific.

    That might raise more general concerns about the unregulated nature of naval policy in a region dominated by private shipping companies.

    So much easier to just run a parade of articles saying “Gulf of Tonkin! USS Maine!” on a loop.

    • @Maggoty
      7•2 days ago

      We have the video. We can see the sea was not overcrowded by any means.