Ren’ai Jiao(Second Thomas Shoal), lying in the southeast of Meiji Jiao(Mischief Reef) of Nansha Islands(the Spratly Islands), is long in pattern, about 16km long, and 5km wide.
In 1999, a Philippine military vessel, under the excuse that it got “stranded”, illegally ran “grounded” on China’s Ren’ai Jiao of the Nansha Islands(the Spratly Islands), thereby occupied it since then.
