An attack on a US ally: China seized an island in the South China Sea — FT

China has seized a disputed reef a few kilometers from the Philippines' most important military outpost in the South China Sea. It is reported by the Financial Times newspaper with reference to the Chinese state television channel CCTV.

This month, China's Coast Guard "established maritime control and exercised sovereign jurisdiction" over Sandy Cay, the military channel of the state television channel CCTV reported on Saturday morning. The report says that Coast Guard officers unfurled the Chinese flag to declare sovereignty over the reef in the Spratly Islands, and a photo of this event is provided. This step marked for the first time in many years that Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, officially installed its flag on another previously unoccupied piece of land," the newspaper writes.

It is noted that this demonstration takes place on the eve of the largest annual Philippine-American military exercises, which will include the development of coastal defense and the seizure of islands. They will begin next week in the Philippine territory in the Spratly region.

Sandy Cay is just a sandbank with an area of just over 200 square meters, but it is of strategic importance to China, since international law recognizes its status as a territorial sea, the newspaper notes. This area, with a radius of 12 nautical miles, intersects with Titu Island, a reef in the South China Sea, which the Philippines uses to track China's actions in the area.

"So far there are no signs that Sandy Cay has been occupied by China or that construction is underway on it. On Saturday, a spokesman for the Philippine Maritime Police said the Chinese Coast Guard had left the island after unfurling the flag. But the official declaration of sovereignty indicated that China could "increase pressure on us in Pag-Ace," he added, using the Filipino name Titu," the article says.