 The militaries of the Philippines and the United States launched joint patrols on November 21 in waters near Taiwan, officials of the Southeast Asian nation said. A move likely to fan further tension with China, the Philippine military said two F-A-50 light combat aircraft and an A-29B Super Tucano light attack plane would participate in air exercises, while the United States would send a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, the drills, which also involved navy vessels. Working in a maritime exercise would start off in Mabulous Island, the Philippines' northernmost point, located about 100 kilometers off Taiwan, said Eugene Kabuso, spokesperson for the Northern Luzon Command. The patrols are likely to work China, which claims most of the South China Sea on the basis of a nine-dash line that stretches as far as 1,500 kilometers, 900 miles south of its mainland, cutting into the easies of rival claimants Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.