Since late 2022, escalating confrontations between philippine and chinese forces over tiny maritime features such as second thomas shoal have posed a serious and growing. Leila de lima marked the ninth anniversary of the philippines’ victory in the permanent court of arbitration with a call to continue defending. Leila de lima said at a conference on april 3 that the maritime dispute between the philippines and china is also a human rights issue, affecting food and economic.
Senior colonel zhang xiaogang, spokesperson for the chinese defense ministry, accused the philippines of “illegally occupying” the kalayaan island group—known in china. Beijing and manila have been involved this year in a series of confrontations at reefs and outcrops in the south china sea, which china claims almost in its entirety. The dispute over the south china sea has become a testing ground for great power rivalry, with the philippines caught at the intersection of chinese assertiveness and.