Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu issued comments regarding the Second Thomas Shoal on April 11th in regards to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre near the Second Thomas Shoal (Ren’ai Jiao).
The comments were originally made by the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in response to a question asked by Chinese state run outlet, the Global Times.
Liu started by mentioning how the Philippines allowed the Sierra Madre to be grounded for decades, which violates China’s sovereignty; especially Article 5 of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea . He ended it by demanding the Philippines remove the grounded WW2 LST from the shoal.
The second comment mentions that if the ship were to be towed away, the Philippines would be allowed to provide living necessities for humanitarian reasons, however, they would need to be monitored by China.
Liu’s statements ended with China attempting to remove any building materials the Philippines may send, claiming they “won’t accept it” and that it violates Chinese national sovereignty.
