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The Transformation of a Rusty WWII Ship into a Symbol of Power Struggles in the Indo-Pacific

August 1, 2024 TruthUSA

So much is on the line: China’s face and power, the Philippines’ territorial sovereignty, and U.S. credibility and its Indo-Pacific strategy.

A rusty World War II ship in the South China Sea has become a symbol of defiance in the face of Chinese aggression.

Twenty-five years ago, the Philippines strategically grounded its naval vessel BRP Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the Spratly Islands, composed of over 100 small islands and reefs.

The shoal lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, an area within 200 nautical miles of a nation’s coastal line that gives the country rights to use natural resources in the water. It lies within a region of the South China Sea that’s disputed between China, the Philippines, and other nations.

The U.S.-built BRP Sierra Madre is not just a ship but a concrete marker of the country’s territorial claim in disputed waterways that, in recent years, has seen rising acts of aggression and harassment by Chinese vessels.

Although in a much-deteriorated state, the ship still serves the same purpose today.

Tensions escalated to a new level in 2023. In that year alone, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, tracked five major conflicts involving the Chinese Coast Guard using water canons and lasers on Philippine vessels.

This year, Beijing continued attacking Philippine vessels with water cannons and even seized boats with long knives and axes and injured a number of Philippine navy personnel, including one who lost his right thumb—all in attempts to block the Philippines from restocking supplies to its Marines stationed on the ship.

Short of using firearms, Beijing has kept its aggression below the threshold of triggering the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty, which obligates the United States to respond to an armed attack on the Philippines.

In its talks with Manila in July, Beijing demanded the BRP Sierra Madre be towed away. An unoccupied Second Thomas Shoal would allow a takeover by the Chinese regime, just like the Scarborough Shaol, another feature within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that Beijing seized more than a decade ago.

Chinese Coast Guard hold knives and machetes as they approach Philippine troops on a resupply mission in the Second Thomas Shoal at the disputed South China Sea on June 17, 2024. (Armed Forces of the Philippines via AP)

Philippines Confronts China

Although a United Nations’ Law of the Sea tribunal in 2016 concluded that the Second Thomas Shoal belonged to the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte downplayed the ruling as a “piece of paper.”

Within months of taking office in 2016, he prioritized trade with China andSource link