The drills occur as territorial tensions with the Philippines intensify. BEIJING -- China conducted military drills near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Saturday as territorial tensions with the Philippines intensify. The drills came after Beijing criticized Manila’s attempts to extend its seabed rights in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil that China claims almost in its entirety. The Philippines earlier this week presented its bid to the United Nations to extent its seabed to include the disputed shoal. “The so-called territorial sea baselines of Huangyan Dao designated by the Philippine side are illegal and invalid,” the People Liberation’s Army Southern Theater Command said in a statement.