ABSTRACT
On 8 April 2012 a group of Chinese fishermen from Hainan province took shelter from a storm at Scarborough Shoal, a small outcrop of rock that is claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines. Philippine naval and coastguard vessels inspected some of these ships but were prevented from arresting them by the intervention of a number of Chinese coastguard vessels. This sparked off a major stand-off between the maritime forces of the two sides, a bitter war of words, public demonstrations, something of a trade embargo and had broad international ramifications, not least for the United States given its 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines. At the time of writing, it is simply the latest in a long series of scuffles over the vexed issue of who owns what in the South China Sea.
