Beijing wants PH out of South China Sea – analysts

BEIJING — Ramming boats, building militarized islands and threatening perceived trespassers — China is escalating confrontations with the Philippines in a bid to push it out of the South China Sea, analysts say.

One of the most perilous flashpoints between the two nations is a submerged reef called the Second Thomas Shoal, where in 1999 the Philippine Navy intentionally marooned a decrepit World War II ship to assert the country's territorial claims.