Philippines' Warship Repair Angers China

 

Beijing has hit out at Manila for repairing a crumbling ship serving as its outpost in the disputed South China Sea, branding the Philippines as a "hypocritical troublemaker and rule breaker".

 

The Philippines said Tuesday it would repair the Sierra Madre which is at a shoal also claimed by China. A Reuters report said the Philippines also plans to revive a former US naval base in Subic Bay.

 

The Philippines officially announced that it was repairing a crumbling ship serving as its lonely outpost in the disputed South China Sea as China deploys more vessels and builds new islands nearby.

 

This would ensure the rust-eaten World War II-vintage BRP Sierra Madre remains livable for a tiny unit of marines guarding Second Thomas Shoal, said Philippine Navy spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo.

 

The Philippine military deliberately grounded the 100-metre (328-foot) World War II-vintage BRP Sierra Madre atop the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 in an effort to check the advance of China, which four years earlier occupied Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef some 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.

 

"China expresses strong protest and firm opposition to the reinforcement of the warship," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, reiterating China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and surrounding waters.

 

Hua recalled how the Philippine warship illegally landed on the beach of the Ren'ai Reef of China's Nansha Islands in 1999 under the excuse that it had been stranded