Micah McCartney
The Philippines says that it temporarily blocked the largest vessel in China's Coast Guard fleet—and the world—from sailing closer to the coast of the heavily populated island of Luzon, amid the ship's dayslong deployment in the U.S. ally's maritime zone.
Newsweek reached out to the Philippine Coast Guard and Chinese Foreign Ministry with emailed requests for comment.
Why It Matters
China's coast guard, paramilitary "Maritime Militia," and—increasingly—naval forces have added muscle to Beijing's claims, in what many analysts consider to be "gray zone" operations, or coercive acts that stop short of war. Chinese forces have responded to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s pushback with blockades of disputed reefs, water cannon attacks, and ramming.
What To Know
China asserts sovereignty over most of the trade-heavy South China Sea as its territory, rejecting the 2016 decision by an international arbitral court that largely dismissed these sweeping claims, which overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and several other neighbors. An EEZ is an area extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from the coastline, within which maritime law accords a country sole access to natural resources.
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