The Philippines and China yesterday exchanged accusations of intentionally ramming coast guard vessels in disputed waters of the South China Sea, while separately, Japan accused Beijing of intruding into its territorial waters.
The collision near Sabina Shoal (Sianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗吵) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) — which Taiwan also claims — was the fifth maritime confrontation in a month between Beijing and Manila.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela showed videos of yesterday’s confrontation at a news conference, saying that China Coast Guard vessel 5205 “directly and intentionally rammed the Philippine vessel” without provocation.
Photo: AFP / Philippine Coast Guard
The ramming damaged the 97m Teresa Magbanua, one of the Philippines’ largest coast guard cutters, but no personnel were injured, Tarriela said.
China Coast Guard spokesman Liu Dejun (劉德軍) said in a statement that a Philippine ship, “illegally stranded” at the shoal, had lifted anchor and “deliberately rammed” a Chinese vessel.
He called on the Philippines to withdraw immediately or bear the consequences.
“The Chinese coast guard will take the measures required to resolutely thwart all acts of provocation, nuisance and infringement and resolutely safeguard the country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Liu said.
Tarriela said that Manila would not withdraw its ship “despite the harassment, the bullying activities and escalatory action of the Chinese coast guard.”
The Philippines deployed a ship in April to Sabina Shoal, which is about 140km from the Philippine province of Palawan.
Manila accused Beijing of building an artificial island, saying it had documented piles of dead and crushed coral on the sandbars, which Beijing denies.
Separately, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy survey vessel briefly entered Japanese territorial waters, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said.
The ship was detected in Japanese territory off Kagoshima Prefecture at about 6am and had departed by 7:53am, the ministry said on its Web site.
It was the 10th time over the past year that a Chinese navy survey ship has sailed through Japan’s territorial waters, and the 13th time if submarines and intelligence-gathering vessels are included, national broadcaster NHK reported.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat