Tensions in South China Sea

[GordMay]

On March 23, the Philippine Navy-operated, civilian-contracted resupply ship “Unaizah Mae 4" was attempting to resupply the “BRP Sierra Madre” outpost. on the disputed ‘Second Thomas Shoal’*, when two Chinese cutters fired water cannons on the ship. According to footage, released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the high-pressure blasts blew out windows on the bridge of “Unaizah Mae 4", and injured sailors aboard.






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* USNI News Photo Illustration of Second Thomas Shoal Satellite image.

[HeinSdL]

Yeap, it's all going just fine in the world! Must remember: violence breeds violence

[denverd0n]

My guess would be that the Chinese figure most of the world is distracted by what is going on in the Middle East right now, so they can safely push things to the next level. They may be right.

[chris in SG]

My understanding is that the Philippine Navy beached an ageing minesweeper (?) onto one of the reefs that is currently in dispute territorially. They did this some time ago, but anticipating China's claim on the entire South China Sea which has recently become more vexed.

Now, China has revealed private discussions with the previous Philippine President Duterte, by which a "gentleman's agreement" was reached that the ageing ship would not be maintained. However, the ship is manned by Philippine crew who are left there to 'wave the flag'.

It seems that China never planned to starve them, so "resupply" was allowed for the crew but not for the rusting hulk. Recently, photos were published of a resupply vessel offloading more than 10 gallons of paint, and this appears to be what upset China (see 1st screenshot). To make matters worse, it appears that the "gentleman's agreement' remained confidential and was not even known to the new President (Marcos Junior). Anyway, that's the current status.

I have a related question for the forum which is much less political and therefore hopefully will not be blocked - my 2nd screenshot is from opencpn using CM93 2013. This is an area in the far south of the "South China Sea" adjacent to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is clear that China has been very diligent in naming or renaming every single reef.

I'm not well-versed at all in chart software, I just use whatever I can find, but I'm curious if CM93 is also 'open' for contributions, and not only opencpn itself. It does seem that China has, rather typically, got ahead of everyone in this. Does anyone manage the information that is published on charts of disputed areas?

[Wotname]

Once again a thread gets closed for the reasons outlined in the sticky at the head of this forum.

Unsurprisingly, compliance with the sticky is not optional;