The United States has warned that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a 1951 treaty after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.
Philippine diplomats summoned a Chinese Embassy official in Manila on Monday for a strongly worded protest following Sunday’s collisions off Second Thomas Shoal.
No injuries were reported but the encounters damaged a Philippine coastguard ship and a wooden-hulled supply boat operated by navy personnel, officials said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr called an emergency meeting with the defence secretary and other top military and security officials to discuss the latest hostilities in the disputed waters.
The Philippines and other neighbours of China have resisted Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims over virtually the entire South China Sea and some, like Manila, have sought US military support as incidents multiply.
After the meeting, Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro condemned China in a news conference for resorting to “brute force” that he said endangered Filipino crew members and for twisting the facts to conceal its aggression.
“The Philippine government views the latest aggression by China as a blatant violation of international law,” Mr Teodoro said. “China has no legal right or authority to conduct law enforcement operations in our territorial waters and in our exclusive economic zone.”
Mr Marcos ordered an investigation of the collisions, Mr Teodoro said, but he refused to disclose what steps the Philippine government would take.
“We are taking these incidents seriously at the highest levels of government,” he said, adding that the government called a news conference to provide accurate facts.
“The Chinese government is deliberately obfuscating the truth,” the defence chief said.
The territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have long been regarded as a flashpoint in a delicate fault line in the US-China rivalry.
About five Chinese coastguard ships, eight accompanying vessels and two navy ships formed a blockade on Sunday to prevent two Philippine coastguard ships and two boats from delivering food and other supplies to Filipino forces stationed at Second Thomas Shoal aboard a marooned navy ship, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
During the stand-off, one of the Philippine coastguard ships and a supply boat were separately hit by a Chinese coastguard ship and a vessel. Only one of the two Filipino boats managed to deliver supplies to Philippine forces, Mr Tarriela said.
The senior Chinese diplomat who was summoned by Philippine foreign officials repeated China’s assertion that the Philippine vessels intruded into Chinese territory.
“China once again urges the Philippines to take seriously China’s grave concerns, honour its promise, stop making provocations at sea, stop making dangerous moves, stop groundlessly attacking and slandering China, and to tow away the illegally ‘grounded’ warship as soon as possible,” Zhou Zhiyong was quoted as saying by the Chinese Embassy in Manila.
He was referring to the Sierra Madre, which serves as Manila’s territorial outpost at the shoal after being deliberately run aground in 1999.
The Chinese coastguard on Sunday blamed the Philippine vessels for causing the collisions and said the Filipinos were carrying construction materials to strengthen their outpost at the shoal.
The US and other allies expressed alarm over the Chinese action. Washington renewed a warning that it is obligated to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including “those of its coastguard — anywhere in the South China Sea”.
“The United States stands with our Philippine allies in the face of the People’s Republic of China coastguard and maritime militia’s dangerous and unlawful actions obstructing an October 22 Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal,” the US State Department said in a statement issued by its embassy in Manila.
