This is CBS Eye in the World. I'm John Batch with Gregory Coppley, Editor and Publisher

and Defense and Foreign Affairs. We leave West Africa and we go to the Philippine islands,

the South China Sea. Video shows China blasting water cannon and reports the New York Times

at Philippine's Coast Guard boat. This situation is called the Second Thomas Sholes. It's

well within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. In any event, China is using

its so-called Coast Guard to harass a boat that is marooned or tied to and not moving since

World War II, I believe, where the Filipino forces have maintained watch because the Chinese

have a way of taking away property if you don't guard it. This is the Second Thomas Sholes.

It's part of the largest story of the South China Sea and the Nine Dash Line. Gregory,

the reason I go to the Philippines is not to settle this dispute, but also to introduce

your newest essay about Xi and his aggression, especially towards Taiwan, but really towards

the whole region. Using water cannon to harass the Filipino forces is provocative, but

it's more of the same wolf warrior turned into military affairs. Does Xi want a military

confrontation or is he satisfied with the bluffing of water cannons? Well, he has to be content

with the bluffing through the water cannon diplomacy or the water cannon offensive. He's

been doing it for some time with the Chinese Coast Guard, which is actually a navy of its

own, but it can be deployed as though it were a civilian force, a force to protect domestic

waterways. The Chinese Coast Guard has frigates and destroyer sized vessels that have been

using water cannon and ramming techniques against Taiwanese navy vessels and Taiwanese

Coast Guard vessels along the Straits of Taiwan, and particularly around the Taiwanese islands

close to the Chinese mainland. So this has been underway for a while, and I think it serves

a Xi Jinping to be able to do this, to show that he is flexing his muscles, he is not backing

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