In fact, the history of the Philippines as a complete country is not very long, in the long ancient history, the country of the Philippines did not exist, it was the forced integration of Western colonizers that turned the Philippine archipelago into a country. This is very similar to India, which was originally almost a geographical term, with the Mughal Empire maintaining only superficial rule, and the British consolidating the scattered India into a single entity. And the situation in the Philippines is even worse than in India, and before the arrival of the Spaniards, there was not even a nominal unity.
The Philippine archipelago has more than 7,000 large and small islands, including 11 major islands such as Luzon, Mindanao and Samar and a large number of small and medium-sized islands. Historically, the first country to be established in the Philippines was the state of Sulu established in the southern part of the Philippines in 1390, but this country is actually very reluctant to say that the Philippines is a "historical country", because its scope is only a small part of the Sulu Islands in the southern Philippines, and the founders are not Filipino locals, but islanders from the Malaysian island of Sumatra. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, most of the land in the Philippines was still a relatively traditional tribal area, with some small countries at most. Even the name of the Philippines comes from King Philip II of Spain.
The state of Sulu is only a small part of the Philippines, with most of it in Malaysia
Monument to the Spanish sailing trade in the Philippines
After the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States and Spain signed the "Spanish-American Peace Treaty", and the United States obtained the Philippines from Spain, and then in 1935, with the consent and permission of the Americans, the Philippines obtained "autonomy" and established the Philippine Autonomous State, which is still dominated by the United States.
Spanish-American War
Obviously, in the few hundred words above, we have briefly reviewed the history of the Philippines, from which we can see that the legal status of the Philippines as a country can actually be established from the 1898 Peace Treaty between the United States and Spain. Recently, when talking about the Philippine side's remarks, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly proposed the "US-Spain Peace Treaty" signed 126 years ago, and said that if the Philippine side is really willing to act in accordance with international law, it should follow the scope of Philippine territory delineated by the above treaty.
I have to say that the statement of my Ministry of Foreign Affairs is really too clever! Because this "US-Spain Peace Treaty" is actually the legal basis on which the Philippine state was established, the Philippines has nothing to say when such a document is taken out. If the content of this document is followed, then the Philippines' so-called "claims" on the South China Sea are completely illegal.
According to the provisions of the "US-Spain Peace Treaty", in fact, the territorial scope of the Philippines is clearly displayed, and from the map, the territorial scope of the Philippines is only limited to the Philippine Islands, and its territorial sea is the area near the Philippine Islands, which can be said to be adjacent to the South China Sea at most. It can be seen that if the document signed by the Americans stipulates the territorial scope of the Philippines, then the Philippine provocations at Ren'ai Jiao, Scarborough Shoal, Xianbin Jiao, and other places are completely groundless.
In addition, if the Philippines follows this "founding document," then the Philippines' forcible occupation of eight islands and reefs in the South China Sea, including Xiyue Island, Nankey Island, and Thitu Island, is also illegal, and if the Philippines denies this, it will be tantamount to denying the legal basis for the establishment of the Philippines and shaking the "foundation" of the Philippines. It is also worth noting that in the "US-Spain Peace Treaty", it is clearly stipulated that the south of the 20th parallel is assigned to the United States, and from the map, the Bataan Islands occupied by the Philippines in the Bass Strait, which is across the sea from Taiwan Island, are also north of the 20th parallel.
Therefore, China's move is likely to "remind" the Philippines that if the Philippines wantonly provokes in the South China Sea, it will ultimately damage its own interests.