For decades the Philippines has stationed a small contingent of marines on a rusting World War II warship that was deliberately run aground on a submerged reef in the South China Sea.
The BRP Sierra Madre, while no longer seaworthy, remains in commission and so technically an extension of Philippines sovereign territory.
On the weekend, China's coast guard fired a water cannon at Philippine vessels trying to deliver supplies to the troops, prompting an outraged response from Manila.
So how did a rusting hulk end up at the centre of this new diplomatic spat and where could things go from here?
Where did the Sierra Madre come from?
The 100-metre BRP Sierra Madre vessel was originally a US tank-landing ship named the USS LST-821, which served in World War II.
It was later renamed the USS Harnett County and deployed during the Vietnam War, where it was used as a helicopter gunship base, according to the United States Naval Institute.
After the war, it was acquired by the Philippines navy and renamed the BRP Sierra Madre after the longest mountain range in the country.
Why was the ship run aground?
The Philippines military deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre on Second Thomas Shoal in the late 1990s in an effort to check the advance of China in the hotly contested waters.
According to the Naval Institute, within days two Chinese naval frigates had arrived, their guns trained on the new outpost.
The unorthodox tactic to establish Philippines presence on the shoal was in response to China's occupation of the nearby and then-uninhabited Mischief Reef, also claimed by Manila, a few years earlier.
Beijing has turned Mischief Reef and other reefs and outcrops into artificial, militarised islands to assert its claims in the waters.
Second Thomas Shoal, located in the Spratly Islands, is about 200 kilometres west of the western Philippines island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from China's nearest major landmass of Hainan island.
This means it's inside the Philippines' 370-kilometre exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
An EEZ gives a country sovereign rights to fisheries and natural resources, but it does not denote sovereignty over that area.
What's the South China Sea conflict all about?
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which includes Second Thomas Shoal, and deploys hundreds of vessels there to patrol the waters and swarm reefs.
Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Manila says China's coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippines ships patrolling the waters.
They also regularly attempt to disrupt re-supply operations to the tiny Philippines garrison on Second Thomas Shoal, according to Manila.
The handful of marines from the Philippines deployed on the BRP Sierra Madre depend upon those resupply missions to survive their remote assignment.
In 2014, a Chinese blockade forced the Philippines to drop supplies in by air.
The Philippines coast guard fears China will seek to occupy Second Thomas Shoal if the military detachment leaves.
Why does all this matter?
The South China Sea is seen as a powder keg and many fear a miscalculation or accident could ignite a military conflict.
The Philippines is poorly armed, but the United States has said it would defend its longtime ally in the South China Sea under a decades-old mutual defence pact.
The US has no territorial claim over the waters, but has persisted in conducting its own patrols there, angering Beijing.
Washington says this is to ensure what it terms "freedom of navigation" in the sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
What happened on the weekend?
Philippines coast guard videos and photographs showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippines navy-chartered civilian resupply boats on Saturday.
One supply boat was hit by the water cannon.
Only one of the two boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies, the officials said.
During the confrontation, two Philippines coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons.
Loading...Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippines coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
“This was like a David and Goliath situation,” Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.
The Philippines military described the Chinese coast guard's actions as "excessive and offensive".
Security experts say China's actions around the atoll point to one thing — Beijing wants to take control of Second Thomas Shoal, also known in China as Renai Reef, and Ayungin in Manila.
"We must re-establish sea control around the shoal because if we don't control it, our resupply is vulnerable to their coercive tactics," Rommel Ong, a maritime security expert and retired vice commander of the Philippines navy, said.
Jay Batongbacal, a maritime expert at the University of the Philippines, said control of the Second Thomas Shoal was not only strategic for China but it could be "another ideal place to build a military base".
What has China said about the incident?
China maintains the Philippines' occupation of the shoal is illegal and said the incident was a "warning" and that it has exercised "rational restraint" at all times.
China's defence ministry on Tuesday urged Manila to stop all "provocative" actions, and vowed to continue taking necessary measures to safeguard sovereignty and maritime rights.
China's embassy in Manila criticised Washington for "gathering" its allies to continue "hyping up" the South China Sea issue and the boat incident.
"South China Sea is not a 'safari park' for countries outside the region to make mischief and sow discord," the embassy said in a statement.
What is the Philippines going to do?
China on Monday accused the Philippines of reneging on a promise made "explicitly" to remove the ship.
However, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday denied making any such agreement.
"And let me go further, if there does exist such an agreement, I rescind that agreement now," Mr Marcos said in a video statement.
Mr Malaya earlier challenged China to produce evidence of the promise.
"For all intents and purposes, it is a figment of their imagination," he said.
The Philippines was "committed to maintain" the rusty ship on the shoal, Mr Malaya said, adding it was "our symbol of sovereignty in a shoal located in our EEZ".
Could the spat escalate?
Mr Malaya urged China "not to escalate matters" and put lives at risk.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Philippines Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro on Tuesday to discuss the alliance between the two countries, the Pentagon said.
Washington renewed a warning that it was obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if public vessels and forces from the Philippines come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Both Professor Ong and Collin Koh, a security fellow at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, believe China would think twice about using outright force to occupy the shoal lest it triggers a 1951 US-Philippines mutual defence treaty.
"There's probably no question about whether China has the means to up the ante here, but more about its willingness over those political risks," said Dr Koh.
Japan and France, through their embassies in Manila, have expressed concern over China's recent actions and repeated their support for the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated Beijing's expansive South China Sea claims.
ABC/wires
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