Foreign Correspondent: May 20

Tonight on Foreign Correspondent, Eric Campbell is in a conflict zone in the South China sea with an exclusive report on an island dispute threatening war with China.

Reporter Eric Campbell has evaded Chinese warships and Coast Guard vessels to reach a Filipino marine base under siege in the disputed South China Sea.

Seven Chinese ships have blockaded the base on a reef in the Spratly Islands to try to starve the marines out.

In an increasingly dangerous conflict, China and five other nations are trying to claim ownership of the islands to gain access to what’s believed to be a vast undersea oil field.

In recent days Chinese ships have used water cannons against the Vietnamese navy to bring in a giant oil rig to one of the disputed reefs in the South China Sea.

Violent protests erupted across Vietnam as a result with some Chinese-owned businesses torched.

The remote island group of the Spratlys has been off-limits to Western media for decades.

But after months of negotiation, Eric Campbell gained permission to travel on a supply boat to an island controlled by the Philippines, one of six countries claiming parts of the island chain.

He then travelled on a small charter boat across the South China Sea to the Ayungin Shoal where besieged marines live on a rusting, scuttled ship on the submerged reef.

Posing as fishermen, the ABC crew were able to get close to the reef before Chinese maritime forces attempted to stop them in a high-speed chase.

The crew managed to reach the shallow coral before the Chinese vessels could block them.

They found a group of hungry marines living on fish they catch on the reef as Chinese ships circle the reef 24 hours a day.

It’s the first ever in-depth report by a Western television crew of this little-known but rapidly worsening dispute.

8pm on Tuesdays on ABC1.