China Sea | Philippines and China blame each other after two collisions

(Manila) The Philippines and China accused each other on Sunday of two collisions between Chinese ships and Philippine boats on a mission to resupply Manila’s troops at an isolated post in the disputed South China Sea.

The incidents, denounced on Sunday by the United States, allies of the Philippines, occurred in the Spratlys, about 25 kilometers from the Second Thomas Shoal atoll where the Philippine navy is stationed and where Beijing deploys ships to assert its claims over almost the entire maritime territory.

“Chinese Coast Guard Vessel 5203’s dangerous blocking maneuvers caused it to collide with the supply boat […] under contract with the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” blasted a Philippine government task force.

China cited a “slight collision” after the Philippine boat ignored “multiple warnings and deliberately crossed law enforcement in an unprofessional and dangerous manner,” according to public television CCTV, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In another incident, a Philippine Coast Guard vessel escorting the resupply mission was “struck” by what Manila called a “Chinese maritime militia vessel.”

Beijing, however, accused the Philippine boat of having “deliberately” caused a collision by backing up in a “premeditated” manner towards a Chinese fishing vessel.

Video released by the Philippine military shows the bow of the Chinese coast guard ship and the stern of the Manila supply ship briefly touching. Then the Philippine ship continued on its way without it being possible to determine whether there had been any damage.

For Beijing in any case, “responsibility for Sunday’s incidents lies entirely with the Philippines”.

Washington, Manila’s military ally and former colonial power, gave it its “support” and denounced in a press release from the State Department “the dangerous actions” and in “violation of international law” of the coast guard and the “militia maritime” of China.

Vital supplies

Second Thomas Atoll is about 200 km from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than a thousand km from the nearest large Chinese island, Hainan.

In 1999, the Philippines deliberately ran a military boat, the BRP Sierra Madre, aground on the atoll, with the aim of making it an outpost and asserting its claims to sovereignty against China.

The ship has since been a source of tension between Beijing and Manila. The Philippine Marines on board depend on resupply missions to survive.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea despite rival claims from the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, ignoring a 2016 international judgment against it.

“Very dangerous” incidents

As Beijing asserts its sovereignty over these waters with ever greater confidence, officials and experts have warned of the risk of collision.

“This is exactly the kind of event that can happen given their dangerous maneuvers,” observed Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines.

Mr. Batongbacal believed that the Chinese coast guard deliberately struck the Philippine supply ship to test the resolve of the United States and see how Manila would react.

“You don’t accidentally hit another ship in the open sea,” he stressed to AFP.

The Philippines, a long-time ally of the United States, has outposts on reefs and islands in the Spratlys, including the Second Thomas Shoal.

“These incidents, their repetition and their intensification are dangerous and very worrying,” Luc Veron, ambassador of the European Union, reacted earlier on X (ex-Twitter).

Tensions between Manila and Beijing escalated in August when Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons against a Philippine resupply mission on the reef, preventing one of the boats from delivering its cargo.

In April, a Chinese ship narrowly missed colliding with a much smaller Philippine Coast Guard vessel in the same area.