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The hull and interior facilities of the illegally grounded Philippines' warship at Ren'ai Jiao (also known as Ren'ai Reef) are severely corroded, showed a set of images exclusively obtained by the Global Times from the China Coast Guard (CCG) recently.
Experts warned that the illegally grounded warship may cause irreversible and continuous damages to the marine life in the South China Sea.
Since 2023, the Philippines has acted in bad faith, and secretly supplied construction materials to the grounded warship through various means. The Philippines' repeated supplements fully exposed its intention to blatantly violate its promise to tow away the warship, and its attempt to illegally occupy China's Ren'ai Jiao with malicious intent.
Photo: China Coast Guard
The exclusive images obtained by the Global Times from the CCG show that the hull of the illegally grounded warship has damage and leaks, with a large amount of paint peeling off the hull, and many corroded rusts water directly flowing into the sea. The entire ship has almost become a pile of rusty scrap iron, with various personal items and garbage casually placed on the uncovered deck.
Filipino military personnel are fishing on the shallow reef of Ren'ai Jiao. One of the images shows a Filipino military personnel is standing on the grounded warship and is suspected of urinating into the lagoon of Ren'ai Jiao.
The illegally grounded warship looks actually to be no longer suitable for human habitation and living.
Photo: China Coast Guard
Several video clips captured earlier this year show that Filipino military personnel on the grounded warship not only dumped waste water directly into the sea, they also gathered on the foredeck to burn garbage. The actions of the Filipino military personnel have starkly contrasted with the pristine blue skies and clean waters near Ren'ai Jiao, showing their destruction of the marine environment.
Facing such a dilapidated warship, the Philippine authorities have repeatedly violated their promises. Instead of towing away the illegally grounded military vessel, they have attempted to carry out large-scale repairs and reinforcements on it. The transportation has been reinforced since last year.
Photo: China Coast Guard
An anonymous professional told the Global Times that since 2023, the Philippines has repeatedly illegally intruded into China's Ren'ai Jiao, and carried out illegal resupply activities for the warship. In addition to the malicious provocations, the reason behind this is that the warship is severely damaged, and the Philippines needs to resupply building materials to repair and reinforce it in order to maintain their illegal presence in China's Ren'ai Jiao.
"But every time, the intention to secretly resupply building materials is exposed by the CCG, who resolutely stops it," the professional said.
Yang Xiao, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Strategy Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that due to the fact that the warship has been grounded for nearly 25 years, the spread of ship hull paint, the dissolution of hull metal rust, the discharge of fossil fuel combustion, and domestic waste onboard the ship have been discharged for a long time on the reefs and waters around the Ren 'ai Jiao.
Photo: China Coast Guard
These toxins continue to spread around the illegally grounded ship's grounding points, causing irreversible and continuous damage to the surrounding marine life. This not only causes the death of marine animals such as fish and shrimps, but also makes cumulative damages to marine aquatic plants. Furthermore, through the food chain, it poses significant adverse effects on the marine ecosystem of the South China Sea and humanity by extension, Yang said.
For ships constantly moving at sea, the paint and pollution of the ship could be continuously diluted by seawater. However, if it's moored or grounded at fixed points for a long time, pollution is difficult to be diluted by seawater due to a lack of water movement, resulting in a gradient of toxins centered on the warship, Yang noted.
"Among them, prominent pollutants include mercury oxide, organotin [TBT], and copper compounds. There is enough scientific research to show that these toxins can cause irreversible pathogenic pollution to marine life. More importantly, with the enrichment of the food chain, these pollutants may enter the human living circle," Yang said.
Yang further stated that the Philippine government, for the sinister purpose of stealing territory from other countries, deliberately ran a dilapidated military ship aground on the beautiful reefs of the South China Sea, and failed to fulfill its promise to remove it for 25 years.
Moreover, the Philippines is unable and unwilling to carry out environmental protection and pollution control on the warship, leading to a large amount of natural and man-made pollutants being directly discharged into the surrounding reefs and waters, which is extremely irresponsible and uncivilized, Yang said.
A Philippine convoy organized by the Atin Ito Coalition has been deterred by Chinese forces, as it stopped 50 nautical miles away from China's Huangyan Dao (also known as Huangyan Island) on Thursday, despite the organization's claim of successfully completing its mission, the Global Times learned from a source.
On May 14 local time, the Biden administration announced "severe" new tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports, including Chinese-made steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), lithium batteries and components, critical minerals, photovoltaic cells, port cranes, and personal protective equipment. Among these, tariffs on imported Chinese EVs will be quadrupled, rising from 25 percent to 100 percent. The import tax on Chinese solar cells will also double, from 25 percent to 50 percent. Additionally, starting from 2025, tariffs on imported Chinese semiconductors will jump from 25 percent to 50 percent.
In the context of the previous administration's Section 301 tariffs on China still being in place, the US side's use of the so-called "review" process to further increase or impose additional tariffs on Chinese products exported to the US is a serious provocation against China. This approach contradicts President Biden's commitment of not "holding back China's development" and not "seeking decoupling from China." It also goes against the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries. To some extent, it can even be understood as the US initiating a new round of tariff friction.
Before announcing the imposition of additional tariffs on China, the US repeatedly spread negative information in an attempt to smear related Chinese technology and products. This is essentially a sign of guilt, trying to manipulate public opinion to cover up the fact that they are politicizing and instrumentalizing economic and trade issues. It must be reiterated that the US has no legitimacy in imposing additional tariffs on China. The World Trade Organization (WTO) expert panel ruled that the Section 301 tariffs violate WTO rules. By continuing to impose additional tariffs on China based on Section 301, the US is further disregarding WTO authority and international trade rules, compounding its mistakes. Suppressing advanced industries of other countries under the banner of "overcapacity" and using "fair competition" as an excuse to promote protectionism are blatant bullying.
The US also uses the so-called "forced technology transfer" and "intellectual property theft" by China, along with the alleged "overcapacity," to justify imposing high tariffs on Chinese goods. These are fragile lies that can easily be exposed. In the fields of the products subjected to additional tariffs, Chinese technology is advanced and does not need to "compel" American companies to engage in "forced technology transfer," nor is there "intellectual property theft." The American political elites' accusations of "forced technology transfer" and "intellectual property theft" as the source of competitiveness for these Chinese products are like grabbing a script and speaking without matching the lines.
As for the accusation of "overcapacity," it is nothing but a lie fabricated by the US. Any product that the US lacks competitiveness in and is important to the US can be arbitrarily labeled as "overcapacity" by the US. In fact, the so-called "overcapacity" of some Chinese products is the result of the US' policy of trade protectionism and market distortion behavior. If the US opens its market, the overall supply and demand of these products in the international market will be more balanced, and the demand for new energy products in the US will also be met.
As mentioned in a previous editorial of the Global Times, considering the "almost zero" number of EVs exported from China to the US, even if the new tariffs are implemented, they are unlikely to immediately impact Chinese electric car companies. The same goes for lithium batteries and photovoltaic products. The Biden administration's exaggerated announcement at this time is of a practical but "not very useful" nature, giving the impression that it is not a careful choice made from genuine economic considerations, but rather a political show aimed at winning voters in an election year. It is a tariff package tailored to meet the political needs of the US. What is absurd is that after news about the White House's plan to impose a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles began to circulate, Trump immediately stated that he would slap a 200 percent tariff. It is clear that tariffs on China are being used as a card, and all actions revolve around domestic political interests.
Furthermore, the US imposing high tariffs on personal protective equipment from China is particularly puzzling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a global shortage of personal protective equipment, and China exported these products to the US, effectively helping the US fight the epidemic and protect the health of Americans. The US is now imposing high tariffs on these products, which has a strong sense of burning bridges after crossing them. It is precisely because of this that the US' imposition of tariffs on China this time is more repugnant and disgusting, fully exposing the hypocrisy of US hegemony.
China-US relations should not be used as a scapegoat for domestic US politics, and China will not stay silent in the face of unfounded accusations from anti-China forces. Despite some in the US hoping for China's "understanding," these tariffs greatly harm China's legitimate development rights and seek to limit the development space of related industries in China. China will definitely take resolute measures to defend its own interests. The US should not be arrogant or harbor any illusions.
