China's 'salami-slicing strategy' against Philippines in disputed sea

BEIJING, China — 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.

Still home to a small garrison of Filipino marines, the crumbling BRP Sierra Madre sits around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and over 1,000 kilometres from China's nearest major landmass.

It requires frequent resupply missions, which China's coast guard has sought to thwart by firing water cannon at Philippine boats -- and sometimes colliding with them.

The Philippines on Wednesday accused China's coast guard of ramming and boarding its navy boats at the Second Thomas Shoal.

A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the confrontation, according to the Philippine navy.

"Beijing is seeking to take control of the Second Thomas Shoal," said Helena Legarda, lead analyst at the Mercator Institute of China Studies in Berlin.

"(China) is waiting for the ship to collapse or to become unliveable, forcing Manila to remove its contingent of marines."

That would leave Beijing poised to seize control of the reef, Legarda said, strengthening its foothold in a waterway rich in oil and gas deposits and through which trillions of dollars in trade passes every year.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea despite competing claims from the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

It rejects an international ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.

Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, insisted Beijing was "very restrained" in defending what it sees as its territory.

But other analysts point to increasingly bold Chinese actions to strengthen its presence.

Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said Beijing was employing a "salami-slicing strategy".

That includes boosting "military,