The Philippine military chief has condemned what he said was the provocative actions of two Chinese air force aircraft that executed a dangerous manoeuvre and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force plane on routine patrol in the South China Sea.
All those aboard the Philippine air force NC-212i light transport plane were unharmed and returned safely to Clark Air Base, to the north of Manila, after Thursday morning’s incident over the Scarborough Shoal, General Romeo Brawner said, without providing other details.
A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press that the Chinese jets flew at a “very close distance” to the Philippine air force turbo-prop plane and “put the lives of our pilots in real risk and danger”.
Another security officer said at least eight flares came from the Chinese fighter jets.
The Southern Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said in a statement Saturday that a Philippine Air Force aircraft had “illegally” entered the airspace above Huangyan Island — the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal, which China claims — on Thursday and disrupted its training activities.
The command sent jets and ships to identify, track and drive away the Philippine aircraft, the statement added.
“The on-site operation was professional, standardised, legitimate and justified,” it said, adding that forces remained on high alert and ready to defend China’s national sovereignty and security.
The command has warned the Philippines to “stop its infringement, provocation, distortion and hyping-up,” the statement added.
The Philippines’ General Brawner said in a statement that “the incident posed a threat to Philippine air force aircraft and its crew, interfered with lawful flight operations in airspace within Philippine sovereignty and jurisdiction and contravened international law and regulations governing safety of aviation”.
He said the incident has been reported to Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs, which has filed numerous diplomatic protests against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters.
General Brawner suggested the incident would not stop the Philippines from undertaking such patrols in the contested region.
“We reaffirm our commitment to exercise our rights in accordance with international law,” he said.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand have overlapping territorial claims in the busy sea passage, a key global trade and security route, but hostilities have particularly flared since last year between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy forces in the Scarborough Shoal and another hotly disputed atoll, the Second Thomas Shoal.
The US military has reported encountering such dangerous manoeuvres by Chinese air force planes in the past over the disputed waters, where it has deployed fighter jets and navy ships to promote freedom of navigation and overflight.
China has bristled at US military deployments in the disputed region, saying these have endangered regional security.
Washington has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
