China Ignores Warnings, Escalates Aggression Against Philippines– www.dailysignal.com

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Excerpt from www.dailysignal.com

The Biden administration has warned China against continuing to conduct armed attacks on the Philippines, but China has blatantly ignored the warning, repeatedly harassing Philippine naval vessels and severely injuring its sailors over the past several months.

Beijing, for its part, has accused Washington of using the Philippines as a pawn and seems to have every intention of continuing to escalate the dispute.

That dispute centers on the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, but also within China’s illegal “nine-dash line” maritime claim in the South China Sea.

The dispute is not new, and China has used a wide array of tools to harass and intimidate the Philippines over the past several years. What’s new is the frequency of these incidents and the higher levels of force being employed by the Chinese coast guard against Philippine navy sailors.