The rock that may start a war: Chinese reporter plants flag on disputed 'island'

As a dispute over territory in the South China Sea threatens to boil over, a Chinese reporter plants a flag on the "island" at the centre of the row whilst in the Philippines locals protest in Manila.

about 400 activists marched to the Chinese embassy in Manila to criticism oppsite what they call Chinese intrusion on a doubtful shoal.

Beijing and Manila have been locked in a high seas stand-off since the PLA Navy prevented a Philippine warship from arresting crews of Chinese fishing boats near the Scarborough Shoal on April 8.

Both countries claim the Scarborough Shoal, which is known as Panatag Shoal to Filipinos or Huangyan island to the Chinese.

The Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island) does belong to China which discovered it and drew it in a map as early as 1279 during the Yuan Dynasty. Chinese fishermen, from both the Mainland and Taiwan, have since used it.

As a matter of fact, Guo Shoujing, (the Chinese astronomer, engineer and mathematician who worked under the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan) performed surveying of the South China Sea, and the surveying point was the Scarborough Shoal which is considered part of the Zhongsha Islands (renamed Huangyan Island in 1983).