I'm John Dr. Dr. Dr. Jeff McCausen, CBS News. In East Asia, that is the South China Sea, deliberately

provocative for months, the PLA Navy and Coast Guard, chiefly the Coast Guard which has

warships the size of Navy ships, painted white, rammed a Coast Guard vessel

by the Filipinos. The coastguard vessel is now withdrawn

from the South China Sea station where it was improperly holding court in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Clearly, Philippine waters.

The Coast Guard, the Filipino Coast Guard vessel has withdrawn as it exited it was hailed by the Chinese

aggressor and told you need our permission to leave these waters, not only enter them, but leave them.

The Philippine craft, to my knowledge, went on.

This is all about provocation.

And the question, Jeff, is what is to be done?

The US Navy has not shown up yet. We have a mutual

defense back with the Philippines. What is this described to you, Jeff? Is

this an escalation? Is this game playing by the Chinese Ministry of Defense?

How do you read it?

I think it's game playing by the Chinese Ministry of Defense and I often worry that

is that necessarily connected directly all the way back to Xi Jinping?

Is Xi manipulating this personally or is he is surprised about some of these provocations as we are?

Because this is, you're right, John, a dangerous game. A lot of this occurs around an area called Second Thomas Scholl, which is only about

60 miles from one of the principal islands in the Filipino archipelago. It's 600 miles John from the Chinese mainland and if you will

describes what the Chinese ultimate effort is and that is to secure the entire

South China Sea as Chinese territorial waters.

...