This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bachelor. Here's John Bachelor.

Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang, my colleague and co-host, and as well in Sydney, Australia

for CPAC Australia, helps me tell the story of confrontation and unity. In the South

China Sea, we welcome Jim Finale. Jim is the author most recently of a piece at American

Greatness about the South China Sea and about the aggression of the people's Republic of

China. More importantly, Jim has much experience in those waters. He's a U.S. Navy captain

retired and he served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations of the U.S. Pacific

Fleet. Jim, a very good day to you. Thank you for joining. The second Thomas Scholl is a standoff.

To your measure right now, these forces seem unequal. We have the Philippines with an old

ship, very old ship that can't move. And we have the PLA Navy overwhelming with numbers

called Coast Guard ships, but they're warships. So how is it that it's a standoff, Jim? Is

there an explanation? Good evening to you. Good evening, John Gordon. Well, I think the standoff is

in the sense that China covets to have control, physical sovereign control over second Thomas Scholl,

like they were able to gain over Scarborough Scholl in 2012. And they can't have that as long as

this grounded amphibious warship from World War II, now called the Sierra Madre, remains on the

Scholl intact and with Philippine Navy personnel aboard, which is the current state today.

So what the Chinese did on the 5th of August was to prevent the Filipinos from bringing food and

water and other supplies to those sailors onboard the Sierra Madre. So that's kind of the standoff

since that 5 August event, the Chinese have demanded that the Filipinos pull the Sierra Madre off

the Scholl, which is ridiculous because the Sierra Madre is literally in such rusted out condition

that any attempts or efforts to pull it off would just collapse and create an ecological disaster.

And the Filipinos aren't inclined to do that. In fact, the new government there is basically

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