says and ramming ships because it wants to control the south china sea, the philippines and getting them are threatened most by china submissions and both struggle to counter them. the rivalry between china and the united states also have a huge influence on this regional conflict. the philippines is getting closer to the us and the help. this protects it from china while getting them is balancing between the 2 superpowers. and this episode we will look at how china is expanding its control in the self tennessee and how the philippine side of it ma'am, are pushing back in such different ways. the let's start with vis chinese warships on patrol,

as shown by state media and sailors taking an oath to defend china. what's interesting about that is where they did it. here. 1600 kilometers from the chinese mainland provocation for others around these waters. the philippines, vietnam, malaysia, 9, indonesia and taiwan. because many of them have competing claims on these waters. looks confusing, right? well, it is. let's talk about china's claims because they're the biggest and beijing has the military muscle to make their claims a reality. vietnam and the philippines are most affected for decades, they've been slowly pushed aside and the struggle for control of the many islands and the sea ton of efforts have already paid off here and the parasol islands.

beijing took full control and the 1970s pushing out vietnam. now their focus is on this. bradley island, the china has been moving in here since the 1980s. this bradleys are basically dispute of bits of land rock or rates. so it's actually more important what's around them. the, the south china sea is a crucial maritime trade route. there an oil and gas reserves below the c bad and rich fishing grounds and important food and income source for many people living around here. china refers to it as the self see, which is the basis for the english name use internationally. but for vietnam it's

the e. c. and the philippines calls the waters close to the shores, the west philippine sea. so even the name of these waters is in dispute. of the, in recent years, china has managed to expand its dominance by occupying these features in the south china sea. let's zoom in on one example. missed you 3. it also have different names in the philippines, china and vietnam. but we will stick with the international names. actually, the philippines have special rights here under international law. that's because states are entitled to explored natural resources, like fisheries and oil within 200 nautical miles of their coastline.

it's called their exclusive economic zone that china has its own interpretation. in the mid ninety's erected, a number of hats here is claimed they were meant for chinese fishermen and ignored protests from the philippines. later bathing added concrete buildings in 2015 chinese dredging ships arrived. they took caro from the reast corps, pulverized it, and titled it up to create an artificial island. so mister brief went from this to this the, today it's a chinese militarized outpost. there are thousands of hangers for fighter aircraft and underground fuel storage and a runway long enough for big military plains. the china built up more

islands in a similar way for have airfields. now there combat aircraft cut stripe, most countries in the region. and how does china justify all that? after world war 2 vision published this map with dashes surrounding most of the south china seats. claiming it as historical rights to it. and turn to still uses a similar version of it today. a 9 dash line, like in this submission to the u. n. in 2009. and what about the military installations on the islands? well, china says they're not directed against its neighbors. i think the charter said a to a case. i mean, even though during the mental commission on the deployment, so i will miss those on other equipments. nazi, i seem to respond to the us new estimate where i gave it to is this

a screwball director of the south china sea strategic situation, probing initiative. i think tank and beijing close to the chinese government the us. he's more and more interference investments unusual. how kind of things that i think make it's shawn or both of them are due for the u. s. has no official position on who should control what in the sea, but it says it cares about freedom of navigation. here. the us us deployed ships and aircraft in the region in response to china's island build up. and both countries sometimes come dangerously close to each other so their rivalry is growing here. and that has consequences for the main us ally in the region. the philippines, the,

this is the moment the chinese coast guard member went at the crew of a filipino naval vessel. with an axe. this sailor says he lost his i'm in the incident. he was headed to a filipino outpost and this bradley islands to this old navy ship, which might be the world's most unique military assignment. the sierra madre the philippines ran into ground at 2nd time a sho. in 1999 to crime control of the week the yes they did that on purpose and yes since then the ship has basically been stuck. they are getting rusty or they say they did it to keep an eye on the ongoing chinese construction of mr. freeze, which is just 20 kilometers away. there are

a few filipino military personnel living on the ground at vessel. the navy delivers food and material to repair the resting hawk. and the china is trying to block the re supply efforts. so that's why we have recently seen so many standups here. the philippines is filming the encounters and blaming china publicly. that's part of the strategy experts college at transparency initiative or the transparency approach. calling out china is actions as in wendy, have been this is charmaine willoughby. she's an associate professor at the last all university in manila and focuses on maritime security in south east asia. this has so far been rather successful for the philippines because of hype from us. there's practically no other claim and states that calls china's

actions out. and manila is confidence to confront. china stems from 2 things. first, the philippines to beijing, to the international court of arbitration. and one i still clearly remember the 12th of july in 2016. practically, everybody in the country was a, you know, celebrating because we, we realized that international law is actually behind us. that's when an international tribunal ruled that there was no legal basis for china. if historical claims in the south china sea, china rejected that ruling. the 2nd reason for the philippines confidence is their big ally, the us, their former colonial power. after independence,

the 2 countries signed a mutual defense treaties. if the philippines was attacked, the u. s. should help defend them. give them the growing tensions with china. the philippines is turning more strongly to the us. the country has given to us access to 9 military bases on its soil. they are part of the so called 1st island chain, a line of american military bases that the u. s. is using to project power close to china. one country being cautious about how close that gets to the us is vietnam. these are the outposts vietnam controls in the south china sea. one of them is bar canada, reese. this is what it used to look like. and this is it in 2020 for enough space to fit

a runway for long range military aircraft. so vietnam is kind of following china is playbook. vietnam has been ramping up its outposts a lot recently sold me saying that now maybe it's a good time for them to really scale off without attracting a lot of attention for on basing then counts on is vietnam analyst. he works for a single poor state funded thing tank. the use of is check institute and he's based in australia. the focus is now on the page so that you try to read as quickly as possible before the denise will ship the attention to the numbers. in the past, china and vietnam have repeatedly clashed in the south china sea. right now,

china isn't publicly pushing back against vietnam's island building. maybe because they're doing the same thing. and maybe because both countries, i governed by a communist party vietnam avoids publicly confronting china. and that restrain isn't only because of aging has a stronger military vietnam has a long land border with china. and china is its largest trade partner. so that number is vulnerable. that's why it tries to strike a balance between china and the us. this is we have now making sure they're getting the exact same treatment during state visit. the victims balancing act is called ben boot diplomacy. moving between july, you know, like a bamboo, swinging and waiting, but not really lean on one side or the other. in practice,

that means the country accepts security assistance including votes from the us. it's former war time. so. but then i'm also regularly conducts joint patrols with china close to their common border. but unlike the philippines written, i'm says it would not accept a foreign military presence on its soil or be part of the military alliance. gunam has been trying to walk. i really tie live. they used to be upon a z z or political struggle between so it's union china and the other states. and it's what's called up really badly, a meetings, a cold war. and i don't think it's a bit amazed literacy, one to really relieve that that the experience anymore. china .