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.
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