China's Carrier Sailed Past a Philippine City. Manila Couldn't Stop It

Описание: On Thursday, October 23, people on the waterfront of Zamboanga City filmed a Chinese aircraft carrier sliding past their city, its deck lined with fighter jets. The Liaoning had crossed the Basilan Strait, between a Philippine city and a Philippine island, with its tracking signal off and without answering Philippine Navy radio calls. And yet no one tried to stop it.

In this map breakdown we follow the carrier for ten days: from Okinawa and the Miyako Strait to the waters south of Ishigaki, through the Luzon Strait, down the South China Sea past Palawan, through the Sulu Sea to Zamboanga, around Balut Island and up toward the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the Keen Sword exercise in the Philippine Sea.

Why could Manila only watch? The answer is hidden in a law the Philippines signed itself, in the strange history of a Soviet hull once sold as a floating casino, and in the same rule of the sea that American warships rely on every day.

Should the Philippines move that highway of water away from its cities, even if American ships lose the same shortcut? Tell us in the comments.