The Chinese Coast Guard on Saturday (March 23) used water cannons against Filipino ships attempting to deliver supplies to troops at an outpost in the West Philippine Sea which Beijing asserts as the South China Sea.
The Filipino boat that came under Chinese attack was a civilian boat. It was then escorted by two navy ships and two coast guard vessels.
The boat was on a monthly supply run to a small number of Filipino marines stationed on the “Sierra Madre”, a warship intentionally run aground on the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to reinforce Manila’s maritime claims in the area.
What happened?
According to a statement from the Philippine Coast Guard, one of its ships was “impeded” and “encircled” by a Chinese coast guard vessel and two ships from the Chinese maritime militia.
One of the Filipino vessels had been damaged by a water canon during the “dangerous maneuvers” undertaken by the Chinese, who it said had shown a “disregard” for the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS).
China Coast Guard hits a Philippine Supply Vessel with a water cannon, blocks it as it approaches Ayungin Shoal. Chinese action causes near collision. pic.twitter.com/DCYfJ8vrHN
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) March 24, 2024
Manila’s statement said that the Chinese engaged in “irresponsible and provocative behavior.”
China claims most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, in another sign of its expansionist belligerence in the region. Beijing has regularly deployed vessels to disrupt efforts to resupply the “Sierra Madre” and described Saturday’s operation as “control measures.”
Meanwhile, the United States and Japan immediately expressed support for the Philippines and alarm at the aggression of Chinese forces off the Second Thomas Shoal.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that Washington “stands with its ally the Philippines and condemns the dangerous actions by the People’s Republic of China against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea.”
Japan’s ambassador-designate to Manila, Endo Kazuya, expressed Tokyo’s “grave concern on the repeated dangerous actions by the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea, which resulted in Filipino injuries.”
China has constructed artificial islands in the region and fortified them to assert its claims in the region in an unprecedented spree of expansionist geostrategy. But a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague pointed out that China’s sweeping claims over waters also claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have no legal basis.
(With inputs from agencies)
