On July 6, the South China Sea Fleet's "Shandong" aircraft carrier battle group crossed the Bahrain Tang Strait and entered the Philippine Sea from the South China Sea to launch an ocean-going deployment; On July 14, four warships of the Chinese and Russian joint formation crossed the Bahrain Tang Strait and entered the South China Sea from the Philippine Sea to carry out the annual joint exercise of the Chinese and Russian navies in 2024. Although it seems that these are two normal crossings of the strait, the difference is that these two crossings of the strait did not take the Bass Strait, which was often taken by the PLA in the past, but took the Bahrain Tang Strait, which coincided with the 20 ° north latitude line.
(20° north latitude, this is the northern upper limit of the Philippine territory)
It should be said that the PLA's abandonment of the Bass Strait and the change to the Bahrain Tang Strait is really hinting at one thing, that is, "the Philippine territory is undecided." "The undecided territory of the Philippines" is a relatively unpopular international event, and in order to understand this, we must first understand the history of the Philippines. In 1898, United States and Spain fought a war for colonies, known as the Spanish-American War, in which United States captured Cuba, an important colony in Spain Caribbean, and the Philippines, a colony in Asia, and the Philippines became a United States protectorate. So don't say that United States does not engage in colonies, United States already had colonies as early as the end of the 19th century!
(Philippine territory under the 1898 Spanish-American Peace Treaty)
After the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, United States and Spain signed a Spanish-American Peace Treaty, according to which the Philippines was limited to the area south of 20°N. Sensitive friends may have remembered that as we said just now, the PLA fleet has recently taken the Bahrain Strait which coincides with the 20 degrees north latitude line for the last two voyages, and the reason is here: In fact, not long after the founding of the Philippines, it sent troops to sneak across the 20 degrees north latitude line and take the Bataan Islands between the Bass Strait and the Bahrain Tang Strait as their own United States United States.
(Marcos Jr.'s operation will not only completely deprive the Philippines of the opportunity to enter the South China Sea, but also lose the Batanes Islands, which the Philippines has annexed for many years.)
But obviously, it is not because you rule a certain piece of land, this land is your territory, since the election of Marcos Jr. in the Philippines, the dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea has begun to intensify, Marcos Jr. pursues a one-sided foreign policy towards United States, and does not hesitate to drive the Philippines to act as a pawn for United States, trying to get involved in China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea. While we continue to send the coast guard to knock on the Philippines, it is indeed time to take out the issue of the ownership of the Batanes Islands! After all, the 1898 treaty was ratified by both the United States and the Philippines, and the territory of the Philippines was expressly limited to the south of the 20° north latitude. Historically, the Batanes Islands are, in principle, an affiliated island of Taiwan and a territory belonging to China, but in 1946, because China fell into a civil war, the Philippines could take the opportunity to steal the Batanes, and now the Batanes that have been stolen by the Philippines for so many years should also be spit out!
(If the U.S. military tries to get its hands on the Batanes, then China must intervene)
There is another important reason why China now puts forward the "undetermined theory of the territory of the Philippines", that is, the United States has already touched the Bataan Islands! Last year, Marcos Jr. and the United States government signed an agreement to open four more military bases to the US military, bringing the number of US military bases in the Philippines to nine, one of which is located in the northern part of the Philippine island of Luzon, across the sea from the mainland's treasure island of Taiwan. The US military is not yet satisfied, and even tries to establish a new base in the Batanes Islands, so that it can be closer to Taiwan, once the PLA liberates Taiwan by force, the US military can use the Batanes Islands as a springboard to provide assistance to Taiwan, and even assist Lai Qingde and others to escape from Taiwan. It is precisely because we saw that United States was involved in the Bataan Islands, so of course we cannot let it go, we must take action, so the PLA fleet passed through the Bahrain Tang Strait twice to "remind" the Philippines: Your land has not yet been determined! If the Philippines is still trying to play tricks on the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait issue, then we must bring the issue of the ownership of the Batanes Islands out and talk about it properly.
(The hospital ship "Silk Road Ark")
And in order to "talk" with the Philippines, a new PLA ship recently appeared in the waters of the South China Sea, and the appearance of this ship made United States and the Philippines "like a great enemy". According to CCTV News, the PLA's second 10,000-ton medical ship "Silk Road Ark" recently went to the South China Sea for the first time to provide "medical services" after it was put into service. With a full load displacement of up to 14,000 tons, the "Silk Road Ark" hospital ship is equipped with 14 departments such as orthopedics, general surgery, dermatology, gastroenterology, etc., and has 8 operating rooms. Although the "Silk Road Ark" is an unarmed hospital ship, because she is a hospital ship, when she appears in the waters of the South China Sea, whether it is United States or the Philippines, it is clear one thing: China is serious! In other words, the PLA is ready to treat the wounded, and the hospital ships are ready.
(How the Philippines annexed the Batanes back then, how to spit it out now)
Now it depends on the Philippines whether it dares to resist the pressure of the People's Liberation Army and continue to make trouble in the South China Sea. If the Philippines still does not know whether to live or die, then we must not only recover all the Philippine-occupied islands and reefs in the South China Sea, but also have a good talk about the issue of the Batanes. If the Batanes Islands are recovered, then our navy, whether it is an aircraft carrier or a submarine, will be safer when it comes out of the first island chain in the future.
