2023-08-06 15:07:00
Manila on Sunday accused the Chinese Coast Guard of firing water cannons at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, calling the actions “illegal” and “dangerous”.
China has said it has taken the “necessary measures” against Filipino boats which it accuses of having “illegally” entered its waters.
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea despite rival claims from the Philippines, Vietnam or Malaysia, ignoring a 2016 international judgment against it.
According to the Philippine Coast Guard, the incident happened while they were escorting vessels carrying supplies for Philippine military personnel stationed on Second Thomas, an atoll in the Spratly Islands.
“The Philippine Coast Guard strongly condemns the dangerous maneuvers of the Chinese Coast Guard and the illegal use of water cannons against (their) vessels,” they said.
The US State Department has condemned China’s “dangerous” actions, saying they were carried out by its coastguards and “maritime militias”.
The British and Australian embassies as well as the European Union have expressed concern. The Canadian mission in the Philippines condemned the Chinese intervention as “dangerous and provocative” while the representative of Japan described the incident, which occurred on Saturday, as “totally unacceptable”.
“Excessive and offensive”
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said the Chinese Coast Guard “blocked and bombarded with water” a supply vessel it had chartered.
Due to these “excessive and offensive” maneuvers, a second chartered vessel was unable to unload its cargo intended for a routine troop rotation operation, said Colonel Medel Aguilar, a Philippine military spokesman.
“We call on the Chinese Coast Guard and the Central Military Commission to act cautiously and be responsible in their actions to avoid miscalculations and accidents that would endanger people’s lives,” he said. -he adds.
In Beijing, Chinese Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said that “two repair vessels and two Philippine Coast Guard vessels illegally entered the waters (…) of the Chinese Nansha Islands”, name in Mandarin of the Spratly Islands.
China has “implemented necessary measures according to law and arrested Philippine vessels carrying illegal construction materials,” the spokesperson added.
The Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that Manila was content to “exercise its sovereign right” on the atoll, located in its exclusive economic zone.
Manila complains that its vessels patrolling these disputed waters are regularly watched or blocked by coastguards or Chinese navy boats.
Old disputes
Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes in the South China Sea, but former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was reluctant to criticize its powerful neighbor.
Since coming to power in June 2022, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has insisted he will not let China trample on his country’s rights at sea, and has moved closer to the United States.
Tensions between Manila and Beijing escalated earlier this year after a Chinese Coast Guard vessel allegedly used a military-grade laser against a Philippine Coast Guard boat near Second Thomas Atoll.
After China occupied Mischief Reef in the mid-1990s, the Philippines beached a decommissioned warship on the nearby shoal to assert its territorial claims. Members of the Philippine Navy are based there.
Second Thomas Atoll is located approximately 200 km from the Philippine island of Palawan and over 1,000 km from the nearest major Chinese island, Hainan.
In April, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel cut off the Philippine patrol vessel Malapascua, which was carrying journalists near Second Thomas.
06/08/2023 16:07:32 – Manila (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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