The coast guard said the growing numbers of Chinese military boats in the area was "alarming".

The Philippines has accused China of “swarming” a reef off its coast after more than 135 military boats were spotted in the South China Sea.

The coast guard said the boats were “dispersed and scattered” in the vicinity of Whitsun Reef, which it says is within its exclusive economic zone.

They said the growing presence of these military boats was “alarming”.

The South China Sea is at the centre of a territorial dispute between China, the Philippines and other countries.

Whitsun Reef - which the Philippines calls Julian Felipe Reef - is around 320km (200 miles) west of Palawan Island, more than 1,000km from the nearest major Chinese landmass of Hainan island.

  • Skua@kbin.social
    132·
    11 months ago

    Whitesun Reef is almost 300mi from the waters of the Philippines, you can look on a map for yourself

    You should check your map more carefully. The nearest major landmass is Palawan, which the article correctly states is 320 km away. Palawan has 900,000 inhabitants and is in the Philippines. EEZs are 200 nautical miles, which is approximately 370 km, so unless the Spratly Islands are used to define EEZs then this reef is comfortably within the Filipino one.