The sovereignty dispute between China and the Philippines over Niuyue Reef in the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Spratlys, continues to escalate. The U.S. State Department confirmed that Secretary of State Blinken called Philippine Foreign Minister Rodrigo Lochin on Thursday to express their concerns about China’s massive build-up of armed vessels in the South China Sea, including on Niuyu Reef, and called on the Chinese side to comply with the 2016 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the disputed claims to islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
Blinken meanwhile reiterated to the Philippine foreign minister that the mutual defense agreement signed between the two countries in 1951 applies to the South China Sea region.
Another Philippine military source was quoted by AFP this Friday as disclosing that the Philippines is conducting an investigation into an incident regarding the repulsion of a journalist by an armed Chinese ship.
It is reported that a group of journalists belonging to the Philippine television station ABS-CBN, who were on their way to Thomas Shore Island in the Spratly Islands (known as Spratly Islands in China) to cover a story this Thursday, were chased by a Chinese marine police vessel and two Chinese naval attack speedboats in an incident that lasted for an hour.
Philippine Foreign Minister Rodrigo Lochin expressed serious concern this Friday over the move by Chinese military vessels to chase away Filipino journalists.
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