China has held sea and air combat drills at disputed Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited area of reefs and rocks it had seized from the Philippines in the South China Sea.

In the drills, a Philippine navy frigate approached Loaita Island, which the Philippines calls Kota Island, while four speedboats with marines and navy sailors landed on its beach. A Philippine air force aircraft later dropped food and other supplies to the forces that retook the island.

China has rapidly expanded its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.