Philippines condemns Chinese coast guard's use of water cannon on a research vessel
The Bureau of Fisheries in Manila said the incident took place on Wednesday near one of three sandbars called Sandy Cay and caused damage to one of the fishing vessels and endangered its crew members.
The Chinese coast guard's 'aggressive interference' happened as the two Philippine vessels were conducting "routine marine scientific research' in the barren white sandbars that lie between the Philippine-occupied Thitu island and a Chinese-built island base called Subi Reef, according to the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries in Manila.
Officials said a Filipino scientific team were in Sandy Cay to collect sand samples from the sandbars.
A larger Chinese coast guard ship 'water cannoned and sideswiped" one of the vessels twice, "resulting in some damage to the latter's port bow and smokestack and putting at risk lives of its civilian personnel onboard,' the Philippine officials said.
They said the incident "occurred within the territorial sea of the Philippines' off Thitu island, which Filipinos call Pagasa, Tagalog for hope.
China's coast guard blamed the Philippines for the collision, saying the vessels entered the waters illegally without China's permission and landed personnel on Sandy Cay, it said, using the Chinese name Tiexian Reef for the sandbars.
It said the vessels ignored warnings from the Chinese side and came dangerously close to the Chinese ship, which it said was conducting normal law enforcement operations.
The Chinese coast guard landed on the reef to check on the activity, a statement said. It did not mention the use of a water cannon.
'The Philippines' actions seriously violated China's territorial sovereignty ... and undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea,' the Chinese statement said.
China has claimed that it has sovereignty rights over virtually the entire South China Sea and has vowed to defend its territories at all cost.
The territorial conflicts are also a delicate fault line in the regional rivalry between China and the United States, which lays no claims to the busy sea passage but has backed smaller states like the Philippines as they confront Beijing's growing aggression in the offshore region.
U.S. Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson said the Chinese coast guard's 'aggressive actions against a lawful civilian mission near Sandy Cay recklessly endangered lives and threaten regional stability.'
'We stand with our Philippine allies in support of international law and a free and open Indo-Pacific,' Carlson said in a post on X.
China and the Philippines have had confrontations over Sandy Cay, which is called Pag-asa Cays by Filipinos.
In January, the Chinese coast guard and a naval helicopter drove away a group of Philippines fisheries ships that were attempting to conduct a scientific survey around Sandy Cay.
Last month, a Chinese state-owned newspaper posted exclusive photos of coast guard officers on Sandy Cay, including one of them holding up a Chinese flag. Three days later, a joint Philippines coast guard, navy and maritime police team headed to the three sandbars and posed for a photo holding up their national flag.
Both the former Biden and current Trump administrations have warned that the U.S. is obligated to defend the Philippines under a Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
China has warned the U.S. not to meddle in what it calls a purely Asian conflict.
The long-unresolved territorial disputes are expected to be high on the agenda when leaders and top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country regional bloc, hold an annual summit starting this weekend in Malaysia.
ASEAN member states Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam are involved in the territorial disputes, along with China and Taiwan. China and the ASEAN have been negotiating a nonaggression 'code of conduct' to prevent the conflicts from degenerating into a larger armed conflict and both sides hope they could conclude the talks next year.
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