Aug. 26 (UPI) — The Philippines and China have again clashed in the South China Sea, with Manila and Beijing trading accusations of responsibility for the latest maritime skirmish between the two neighbors amid their fight over sovereignty of the disputed waters.
The incident occurred Sunday within the Spratly Islands, a disputed archipelago that is claimed by the Philippines and China, along with several other Asian nations.
The Phillipines accused China of ramming and causing the engine failure of a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel that was on a “humanitarian mission” to resupply Filipino fisherman.
It said eight ships of China’s navy and Coast Guard attempted to “encircle and block” the humanitarian mission and conducted “aggressive and dangerous maneuvers.”
The Chinese vessels blasted horns and deployed water cannons, it said, adding that the clash resulted in the “early termination of the humanitarian operation.”
“These unprofessional, aggressive and illegal actions posed serious risks to the safety of the Filipino crew and the fishermen they were meant to serve,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela said in a statement.
The Phillipines Coast Guard posted short clips of the incident to its X account, showing Chinese Coast Guard vessels ramming the Manila ship and hitting it with water cannons.
In a statement of its own, the Chinese Coast Guard accused the Filipino ship of having “illegally broke into waters” Beijing claims without permission from the Chinese government.
It said the Manila vessel ignored China’s “strict warning” and accused it of having crashed into the Chinese Coast Guard vessel.
“The responsibility was entirely on the Philippines,” China Coast Guard Bureau spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement published to the Chinese social media platform Weibo. “We are telling the Philippines to immediately stop the infringement and provocation, otherwise all the consequences arising therefrom will be borne by the Philippines.”
The Philippines rebuked China’s characterization of the incident, again publishing video to its X account that shows the Beijing ship is responsible for the ramming.
“It is PRC that is trespassing in our Exclusive Economic Zone. Escoda Shoal is located within our EEZ, while your claim to Xianbin Jao exists only in the imagination of the Chinese Communist Party,” Tarriela in a second statement, while referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“The only reason you are calling for our vessel to withdraw from Escoda Shoal is that you are clearly conducting illegal activities that harm our marine environment.”
Several ambassadors to the Philippines came in defense of their host nation, including Ambassador MaryKay Carlson of the United States, a nation that has repeatedly voiced support for Manila in the protracted conflict.
“Unsafe, unlawful and aggressive conduct by the PRC disrupted a legal [Philippines] mission, endangering lives — the latest in multiple dangerous actions by the PRC,” Carlson said in a statement on X. “We are steadfast in supporting our [Filipino allies].”
Several Asian nations lay claims to the waters of the Spratly Islands, though the feud between the Philippines and China has been the most violent and has intensified since 2023 with Beijing asserting its influence over the South China Sea, much of which it claims through its Nine-Dash-Line maps that have been rejected by several nations, including the United States. The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration also disregarded the maps in a 2016 decision.
In July, the the Philippines and China made an agreement aimed at lowering tensions between the two countries in the disputed waters.
However, Sunday’s incident comes about a week after ships of the Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard collided in the disputed waters and days after China fired flares at a Manila observation flight. Three weeks ago, there was also a confrontation between the two nations’ air forces over the Chinese-occupied-but-disputed Scarborough Shoal.