'Confrontation' in South China Sea as US Ally Challenges Beijing

Newsweek

17-06-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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A standoff occurred between the Chinese and Philippine coast guards off the Philippine province of Palawan, according to ship-tracking data shared by a maritime analyst on Tuesday.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Philippine coast guard via email for comment outside of office hours.
Why It Matters
Tensions are running high between Beijing and Manila over China's expanding activities within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, hundreds of miles from Chinese shores. Beijing claims over 80 percent of the South China Sea as its territory, asserting historical rights.
Philippine efforts to challenge Chinese maritime forces, spearheaded by China's large, reinforced-hull coast guard ships, have resulted in clashes at South China Sea flashpoints, raising concerns that a miscalculation could trigger the United States-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty and draw U.S. forces into conflict with China.
A Chinese Coast Guard ship near the Philippine-occupied island of Thitu in the disputed South China Sea on June 3, 2025.
A Chinese Coast Guard ship near the Philippine-occupied island of Thitu in the disputed South China Sea on June 3, 2025.
Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
What To Know
Tuesday's maritime confrontation occurred when three Chinese coast guard ships challenged a group of Philippine vessels about 60 miles off the westernmost Philippine province of Palawan, Ray Powell, director of the Stanford University-affiliated maritime group SeaLight, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
That's well within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile (230-mile) exclusive economic zone, where Manila alone is entitled to fishing and natural resource management rights under international law.
The Philippine contingent—comprised of two coast guard cutters and a civilian patrol vessel from the national fisheries bureau—had escorted what appeared to be a fishing vessel into waters south of Half Moon Shoal, an atoll west of Palawan and on the edge of the contested Spratly Islands archipelago.
🇵🇭🇨🇳MARITIME CONFRONTATION NEAR PALAWAN:
Two #Philippines Coast Guard (BRP Cape San Augustin & BRP Cape Engano) & one fisheries vessel (BRP Lapu Lapu) have escorted a ship ID'd as Panama-flagged Kunimatsu 3 from Puerto Princesa to an area south of Half Moon Shoal, 50-55nm from… pic.twitter.com/6L3JqapbFO — Ray Powell (@GordianKnotRay) June 16, 2025
An illustration shared by Powell depicts a web of ship tracks as Chinese and Philippine vessels maneuvered around each other, in an encounter reminiscent of previous standoffs at other Spratly hotspots, such as Sabina Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal in The Hague dismissed China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea. Beijing maintains that the decision is invalid.
What People Are Saying
Chinese analyst Liu Xiaobo, at a recent event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "China's maritime rights protection in the South China Sea is mainly carried out by the coast guard.
"And there are more and more coast guard in the South China Sea, but it's very rare to see the Chinese navy because, to China, using the navy is very to easy to lead into escalation. In China's view, this is another kind of self-restraint."
What Happens Next
Both China and the Philippines are unlikely to budge on the long-running dispute.
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