"Heaven and earth are vast, they are not monopolized by one ruler.
The universe is great and wide, and the various countries are created each to have a share in its rule.
Now the world is the world's world; it does not belong to a single person."
—Letter, Japan's Prince Kanenaga to the Hongwu Emperor of China, 1382
From Bloomberg via gCaptain, June 9:
The Philippines said it will continue to maintain and supply its South China Sea outposts without seeking permission from any other nation, dismissing Beijing’s demand to do so as “absurd, nonsense and unacceptable.”
“Our operations are conducted within our own territorial waters and EEZ,” National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said in a statement late Saturday, referring to the nation’s exclusive economic zone. “We will not be deterred by foreign interference or intimidation.”
Ano was responding to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning’s comment on Friday that the Philippines should notify Beijing in advance if it wants to deliver provisions or evacuate personnel from its grounded warship in the Second Thomas Shoal.
China claims swathes of the South China Sea, including areas the Philippines views as part of its exclusive economic zone. Beijing has barred delivery of construction materials to the rusty World War II-era ship, BRP Sierra Madre, which Manila has kept as its military outpost in the disputed shoal since 1999.
Ano cited the China Coast Guard’s “aggressive actions” against a Philippine vessel evacuating a sick soldier on May 19 from the ship, which he called “barbaric and inhumane.”
“Such actions are not only violations of international maritime laws but also of basic human rights,” he said. Recent reports of Chinese forces allegedly seizing food and medical supplies meant for Filipino troops at BRP Sierra Madre “are equally reprehensible and warrant a thorough investigation and accountability,” the national security chief said.....
....MORE
From a June 2023 post:
....The Chinese Coast Guard has been low-key confrontational with the Philippines recently in part to enforce their "Nine-Dash-Line" claim (shown here with many more dashes):
The situation is getting to the point that Emperor Xi is going to have to be slapped down.
Here's a bit of history seen in our July 2021 post (and a few others back to 2014), "China's Emperor Xi And The Threat To Destroy Japan":
Xi Jinping risks emulating another Chinese autocrat, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu. As retold in a different context a few months ago:
....China's defiance of any norms and blithe, there is no other word for it—lying—as it pursues its goals is one of the major facts of life in the world today. But there is a history of Chinese arrogance.
For 100 years, from the Chinese/Mongol attempts to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281 to the demands of the founder of the Ming Dynasty from 1369 to 1382 that Japan pay tribute:
UPDATE: The Oxford Journals link to The Chinese Journal of International Politics is now gated with a stub entry....The threat of military force was evident in Ming China’s effort to bring Japan into the tribute system. Japan’s Prince Kanenaga imprisoned and executed a number of the Chinese envoys that Emperor Hongwu had sent in 1369 to demand tribute, apparently angered at the condescending tone of the diplomatic letter denoting Chinese superiority. When the Ming court threatened invasion, the Japanese reminded it of the Mongols’ failed attempts in 1281 to conquer Japan. A letter Kanenaga sent in 1382 explicitly denied the legitimacy of Chinese dominance: ‘Now the world is the world’s world; it does not belong to a single ruler … . I hear that China has troops able to fight a war, but my small country also has plans of defence … . How could we kneel to and acknowledge Chinese overlordship!’88 ...
—Oxford Journals' Chinese Journal of International Politics, Summer 2012
If interested here is "Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East" with the quote and some background on what Prince Kanenaga was dealing with.
Here's a picture via the U.S. Naval Institute of the BRP Sierra Madre which the Philippines deliberately ran aground to mark their territory:
