This is John Bachelors, a conversation with my colleagues, Gordon Chang and Jim Finel,

about the events in the South China Sea these last weeks, the PLA Navy and Coast

Guard threatening in some instances ramming the Coast Guard of the Philippines and it's all around

something called Sabina Scholl which Jim Finel very carefully explicates here and

then he mentions that the Chinese are pressing in all directions, including away

from Sabina Scholl at Scarborough Scholl, threatening and challenging and intimidating the Philippines.

The Philippines are not equipped to go up against a

swarm of Chinese warships, Coast Guard ships, aircraft. What is to be done? A question

that stands there. Here's Jim to talk about Sabina Scholl and Scarborough Scholl and

what we know now. More of this tonight. I'm afraid, Gordon, that that's exactly what we're seeing. You recall in this

incident with Sabina it was just a week and a half or two weeks ago that the

Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Admiral Papro that said that you know

escorting the Filipino Coast Guard ships to their

operations in this area would be a reasonable option so in that in that sense it's

almost like another assurance that we gave to the Filipinos publicly that we would stand with them.

And then yet now the Filipinos have left, the Chinese have now swarmed in and made it basically said we're going to fight

whoever tries to come back in here so we're a real risk of being seen as having no

credibility you know we say all of our leaders have said,

you know, military leaders and whatnot say,

we want a free and open Indo-Pacific.

That's one of the mantras that comes from this administration.

Yet we don't have a free and open into a Pacific when it comes to Sabina Scholl.

...