The Philippines needs to do more than protest Beijing’s “illegal actions” in the South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said yesterday.
China Coast Guard personnel wielding knives, sticks and an axe surrounded and boarded three Philippine navy boats last week, video showed, foiling what Manila said was a resupply mission to troops manning a grounded warship on Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙).
It was the latest and most serious incident in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up efforts to take control of the feature, which Taiwan also claims.
Photo: Reuters
“We have filed over a hundred protests, we have already made a similar number of demarches,” Marcos told reporters.
“We have to do more than just that,” he said, without specifying what other steps Manila might take.
Manila has also raised concerns that Chinese forces might take action against the BRP Sierra Madre, an aging ship that was deliberately grounded on the shoal in 1999 to assert Philippine claims to the area.
A small garrison of marines stationed aboard the decrepit vessel relies on frequent resupply for survival.
Marcos echoed his senior security aides’ assessment that the clash on Monday last week next to the grounded warship did not constitute an armed attack.
“It’s not armed. There was no gunshot. They did not point a gun at us, but it was a deliberate action to stop our people,” Marcos said. “So, although there were no arms involved, nonetheless, it is still a deliberate action and it is essentially an illegal action that was taken by Chinese forces.”
A Philippine soldier lost a finger in the incident, with Manila also accusing the China Coast Guard of stealing guns and damaging three boats along with navigational and communication equipment.
Beijing said that its coast guard behaved in a “professional and restrained” way and blamed Manila for the clash.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
RSS