2 weeks ago
Chinese vessels fired h2o cannons astatine Philippine seashore defender ships, damaging one, successful nan disputed waters of nan South China Sea adjacent nan Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine seashore defender charismatic said Tuesday. Screenshot: Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela/X
April 30 (UPI) -- Chinese seashore defender ships fired h2o cannons and drove Philippine vessels distant from a contested area of nan South China Sea, a Philippine seashore defender charismatic said Tuesday, successful nan countries' latest brushwood successful waters adjacent nan Scarborough Shoal.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said successful a statement posted connected X that nan incident occurred Monday greeting erstwhile 2 Philippine maritime patrol vessels encountered 4 Chinese seashore defender and six Chinese maritime militia vessels successful nan vicinity of nan Scarborough Shoal.
The shoal, which nan Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc, is simply a triangular concatenation of reefs and rocks astir 120 nautical miles westbound of nan Philippine seashore that has been blockaded and claimed by China since a 2012 standoff.
Tarriela said that 1 Chinese vessel fired its h2o cannon astatine nan Philippine ships astir 12 nautical miles distant from nan shoal, hitting one. The different was struck by h2o cannons from 2 Chinese ships erstwhile it was astir 1,000 yards from nan shoal and suffered railing and canopy damage.
"This harm serves arsenic grounds of nan forceful h2o unit utilized by nan China Coast Guard successful their harassment of nan Philippine vessels," Tarriela wrote.
He added that China "has erstwhile again installed a 380-meter [1,250-foot] floating obstruction that covers nan full entranceway of nan shoal, efficaciously restricting entree to nan area."
Last year, nan Philippines removed a floating Chinese obstruction astatine Scarborough Shoal that was blocking its vessels from reaching nan accepted sportfishing ground.
The Chinese seashore defender connected Tuesday said it expelled 2 Philippine vessels that had "illegally intruded" successful waters disconnected of Huangyan Island, China's sanction for nan shoal.
The Scarborough Shoal falls wrong nan Philippines' exclusive economical zone, aliases EEZ, which nan United Nations Convention connected nan Law of nan Sea says extends 200 nautical miles from a country's coast.
China, however, claims sovereignty complete almost nan full South China Sea, a contention that an world tribune successful The Hague rejected successful 2016. The 2 sides person had respective maritime encounters successful caller months, including a collision caused by Chinese vessels astatine nan Second Thomas Shoal successful March.
The latest incident comes arsenic nan United States and nan Philippines clasp a large-scale associated subject exercise that includes live-fire rocket launches and a boat-sinking drill successful nan South China Sea.
The yearly Balikatan workout has sparked an angry consequence from Beijing, which claims it will only summation tensions successful nan region.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has looked to move person to Washington since taking powerfulness successful 2022 aft his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte hobbled nan confederation successful an effort to fortify ties pinch Beijing.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for nan countries' first-ever trilateral summit, astatine which he said Washington's committedness to nan Philippines remains "ironclad" amid China's assertion of powerfulness successful nan South China Sea.
