What does China plan to do in Bajo de Masinloc?

MANILA, Philippines – Inside Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal floats a platform that Philippine officials say can carry six persons, once bore an antenna, and has fenders installed around it.

Philippine security officials believe it’s for scientific research inside the once-abundant shoal, whose access Beijing has been controlling since 2012. China itself has hinted as much, insisting in statements that since the shoal is supposedly theirs, they have the right to conduct scientific research.

But experts, analysts, and other military officials have a bigger concern, because a platform inside Bajo de Masinloc is conjuring up “nightmares” of Mischief (Panganiban) Reef, where what Beijing had claimed was a fisherman’s wharf was eventually developed into a highly militarized artificial island just over 130 nautical miles away from the Philippines.

Bea Cupin walks you through what we know about the floating platform and what experts and even military officials fear the most. – Rappler.com