Philippines, Japan work to counter China's maritime territorial claims

China’s neighbors are taking measures to counter its territorial assertions in the South China Sea: On Sunday morning a group of 50 mostly student Filipino protesters landed on Pagasa island, part of the disputed Spratly archipelago, to take a stand against what they said was Beijing’s creeping invasion of the Philippine exclusive economic zone, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, The Financial Times reported that Japanese scientists are attempting to regrow what Tokyo views as the country’s southernmost point, Okinotorishima, a coral atoll in the Philippine Sea that has begun dying due to rising sea levels from Climate change.