Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said "external countries"—a hint at the United States—were sowing discord in the contested waters by joining multilateral naval exercises with the Philippines, America's oldest treaty ally in Asia.

The Philippines' foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador on Wednesday, November 13, to protest against Beijing's establishment of baseline coordinates around the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea,

China is putting ever greater pressure on the Philippines to cede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Manila's Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday after meeting his Australian counterpart in Canberra.

The Philippines is likely to maintain a “low-intensity” approach to China in the transition period after the United States election, a survey by a Beijing-based think tank has concluded.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed two laws reaffirming the extent of his country’s maritime territories and right to resources, including in the South China Sea, where the new laws clash with Beijing’s extensive territorial claims.

For more than a decade, China has been using an increasingly aggressive hybrid-warfare strategy to increase its power and influence in the strategically important South China Sea. Countering it will be one of the defining

China rejected Philippine maritime claims on Sunday, saying new legislation "severely infringes on" Beijing's territorial sovereignty and rights in the South China Sea, and vowing to protect its own interests.

China's embassy warned the Philippines to cease any "unilateral actions" after Manila brought in two new maritime laws meant to define territory, sea lanes and air routes.

The Philippines has protested China’s baselines around the disputed Scarborough Shoal, as tensions between the two nations build up anew over their competing claims in the South China Sea.