Philippines-China relations

2025 is shaping up as another year of friction and contention in disputed parts of the South China Sea.

On December 4, Chinese ships, including a navy vessel, confronted Philippine vessels close to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

“He was not a strategic thinker. His foreign policy flowed from his personal likes and dislikes.”

The BRP Sierra Madre, a warship grounded on a shoal in the Spratly Islands, has become the focus of growing tensions with China.

According to a Reuters investigation, the Pentagon used social media accounts to sow doubt about China's Sinovac vaccine.

The country's military chief claims that the incident saw Chinese boats come within five meters of the Philippine outpost at Second Thomas Shoal.

Earlier this month, a Chinese embassy spokesperson said that the two nations had reached a "common understanding" on the dispute.

The comments from Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that bilateral relations are "at a crossroads."

The accusation follows the Chinese military's claim that a Philippine vessel "illegally entered" the area around Scarborough Shoal, which both nations claim.

The move follows an incident last month in which a Chinese vessel forcibly prevented the resupply of Filipino forces on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.

The atoll in the South China Sea has been subject to what some observers have characterized as a Chinese blockade.

Government officials, including two former presidents, have denied Beijing's claim that Manila made an agreement to remove the ship from the disputed shoal.