Manila and Beijing have an extended historical past of maritime incidents within the contested South China Sea.
The Philippines and China have traded accusations over a collision of their vessels close to a disputed shoal within the South China Sea as tensions over claims within the very important waterway escalate.
The shoal is a part of what are internationally often known as the Spratly Islands.
China’s coastguard mentioned in a press release on Sunday that two Philippine vessels, ignoring repeated warnings, had “illegally entered the waters adjoining to Ren’ai Reef within the Nansha Islands with out the approval of the Chinese language authorities”.
It mentioned the Unaizah Mae 1 “made an unprofessional and harmful sudden flip, deliberately ramming into China Coast Guard vessel 21556”. It mentioned the Philippine facet bore full duty.
Spokesperson Gan Yu additionally known as on the Philippines to cease its “provocative acts”, saying Beijing would proceed to hold out “law-enforcement actions” in its waters.
In the meantime, the Philippine coastguard accused China of firing water cannons and ramming resupply vessels and a coast guard ship, inflicting “severe engine harm” to at least one.
Spokesperson Jay Tarriela mentioned in a press release on the social media platform X that the “M/L Kalayaan suffered severe engine harm. Opposite to China Coast Guard disinformation, UM1 rammed by CCG vessel”.
Assertion of the Nationwide Job Power-West Philippine Sea
December 10, 2023, Manila, PhilippinesRight now, 10 December 2023, China Coast Guard (CCG) and Chinese language Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels harassed, blocked, and executed harmful maneuvers on Philippine civilian provide vessels,… pic.twitter.com/NF66BqVPUM
— Jay Tarriela (@jaytaryela) December 10, 2023
Hours earlier than Sunday’s incident, round 200 Philippine fishermen, youth leaders and civil society teams had joined a Christmas convoy to the world to ship donations.
However the convoy’s organiser mentioned the fishing boats determined to tug out as they “erred on the facet of warning” because of the presence of Chinese language boats.
The Philippines and China have an extended historical past of maritime incidents within the contested South China Sea, via which greater than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce passes yearly.
Sunday’s incident comes a day after Manila accused Beijing of firing water cannon at a civilian-operated authorities fishing vessel, a transfer Beijing known as official “management measures”.
In line with Chinese language state media, Beijing additionally mentioned that it took “management measures” in opposition to the three Philippine vessels within the South China Sea that it claimed had intruded into waters close to Scarborough Shoal on Saturday.
China claims nearly your complete South China Sea, together with elements claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. However the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration in The Hague in 2016 mentioned China’s claims had no authorized foundation.