outcrop

This is the latest in a string of dangerous encounters over the last two years as Beijing and Manila seek to enforce their claims on disputed reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea.

Taiwanese soldiers manning Dadan Island, a rocky outcrop mere kilometres from China's coast, begin vanishing mysteriously.

They emerge from within a rocky outcropping in an otherwise grassy field and hold up their hands, as if in benediction.

An accompanying conservation plan would convey the 30-acre rocky outcrop that hosts the Quercus palmeri , or Palmer’s oak, to a Native tribe.

There has been a string of dangerous encounters in recent months as the two sides sought to enforce their claims on disputed reefs and outcrops, including the Second Thomas Shoal and the Scarborough Shoal.