China has held sea and air combat drills at disputed Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited area of reefs and rocks it had seized from the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The patrol comes less than a week after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr signed the Maritime Zones Act and Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, embedding Manila’s claims to the South China Sea in domestic law. The US expressed its support for the Philippine legislation, saying other countries had passed similar laws.

China is stepping up pressure on the Philippines to concede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Manila's Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday after meeting his Australian counterpart in Canberra.

Countries surrounding the South China Sea have built more than 90 outposts on around 70 islands, rocks and reefs in the highly disputed area, satellite images show.

The Philippines has protested China’s baselines around the disputed Scarborough Shoal, as tensions between the two nations build up anew over their competing claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippines' foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador on Wednesday, November 13, to protest against Beijing's establishment of baseline coordinates around the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea,

China declared its maritime baselines around Scarborough Shoal after the Philippines passed laws defining its maritime zones and sea lanes last week.