The Philippines say that China used water cannons to stop three of its boats in a disagreement over who owns land in the South China Sea.
A video shows Chinese ships spraying strong blasts of water at Philippine government boats.
The Philippines said that China’s actions were against the law and were aggressive.
The South China Sea is a place where China, the Philippines, and other countries are arguing about who owns it.
The event occurred close to Scarborough Shoal, which is a place where there is often tension between the two countries. In 2012, Beijing took control of the shoal and Chinese boats have been bothering Philippine fishermen there ever since.
The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea reported that Chinese Coast Guard ships used water cannons to stop government boats from bringing fuel and food to fishing boats.
The agency strongly disapproves of the illegal and aggressive actions.
Beijing said it had taken action to control ships that entered its waters without permission.
Earlier this week, the Philippines said that China sent a lot of military boats to a reef near their coast in the South China Sea.
The Philippines will send 40 boats with Christmas gifts and supplies to people on Thitu island, the biggest island they live on in the South China Sea.
The two countries have been arguing more since Ferdinand Marcos Jr became president of the Philippines last year. They both claim to own the same land.
Last month, the Philippines worked together with the US and Australia to do two air and sea patrols.
In 2016, a global court said China’s claim to 90% of the South China Sea is not valid. But China doesn’t agree with the decision and has been making islands in the area where other countries also say it’s theirs.
The disputed waters are causing tension between China and the US. In October, US President Joe Biden said that the US will protect the Philippines if there is an attack.
President Biden talked about the collisions between boats from the Philippines and China that happened a few days ago.
Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei say that they also own parts of the sea.
Tag: South China Sea
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Philippines claims China fired water cannons at its vessels
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China and Philippines exchange accusations over collisions in South China Sea
China and the Philippines blamed each other for causing crashes in a disputed part of the South China Sea. This is just one of many clashes between the two countries in the area, which has made tensions in the region worse.
The Philippine government said that a ship from the Chinese Coast Guard did dangerous moves that made it crash into a Philippine boat bringing supplies to soldiers stationed in Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratly Islands chain.
China’s action was called “provocative, irresponsible, and illegal” and it put the crew of the Philippine boats in danger, according to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea.
On Sunday, another incident occurred where a ship from the Chinese maritime militia collided with a ship from the Philippine coast guard. Both ships were involved in the mission to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre. In 1999, Manila intentionally put a navy ship on Second Thomas Shoal, and Filipino marines are now stationed there to protect their rights to that area.
The Chinese Coast Guard said on Sunday that the Philippines broke international sea rules and put the safety of Chinese ships in danger.
It accused the first Philippine ship of going into the waters of what it calls the Nansha islands and Renai Reef without permission. This prompted a Chinese Coast Guard ship to stop the Philippine ship, which led to a small crash.
In another incident, the Chinese Coast Guard stated that the Philippine Coast Guard boat intentionally tried to start a problem and turned around, resulting in crashing into a Chinese fishing boat.
Beijing says that it completely owns most of the South China Sea, including the islands and sandbars in it. They even claim ownership of areas that are far away from China’s main territory.
In 2016, a court in The Hague decided that the Philippines were right in a big argument about the ocean. The court said that China doesn’t have any legal reason to say that they own most of the South China Sea.
Beijing disregarded the decision.
No one was hurt in either crash on Sunday. This is the latest of many recent arguments between Beijing and Manila over the disputed waterway.
In September, the Philippine Coast Guard showed a video of a Filipino diver removing a barrier put up by the Chinese in a disputed area of the water. This barrier had stopped Filipino boats from going into the area.
It happened a few days after the Philippine Coast Guard claimed that China’s marine militia had caused extensive damage to coral around the Palawan islands, making it look white and ruined.
China’s foreign ministry said that those accusations are not true and have no basis. -
ASEAN to Conduct First Joint Military Exercise in South China Sea
The South China Sea will host the first-ever combined military exercise of the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian nations, its chair Indonesia announced on Thursday. These multilateral security drills come at a time when regional volatility and unpredictability are on the rise.
The drill will take place in the North Natuna Sea, the southernmost part of the South China Sea. The decision was made during a conference of military leaders of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia.
Admiral Yudo Margono, the head of the military in Indonesia, told the state-run news outlet Antara that the drill will take place in September and would not involve any instruction in combat operations. Margono stated that the aim was to strengthen “ASEAN centrality.”
ASEAN’s unity has for years been tested by a rivalry between the United States and China that is being played out in the South China Sea. ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia have competing claims with Beijing, which asserts sovereignty over vast stretches of ocean that include parts of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Indonesian military spokesperson Julius Widjojono said the exercise was related to the “high risk of disaster in Asia, especially Southeast Asia.”
A conduit for about $3.5 trillion of annual ship-borne trade, the South China Sea has seen constant tension of late as China presses its claims with a huge deployment of coast guard and fishing boats as far as 1,500 km (932 miles) off its coastline.
China claims sovereignty via an expansive “nine-dash line” based on its historic maps, which an international arbitration court in 2016 ruled had no legal basis.
ASEAN has been pushing for a long-awaited maritime code of conduct with China to be completed and several of its members have had run-ins with Beijing in recent months.
Vietnam criticized China’s deployment of a research vessel near several gas blocs in its EEZ, while Beijing was accused of sending suspected maritime militia into waters where navies of India and ASEAN countries held an exercise.
The Philippines chided China’s coast guard for “dangerous manoeuvres” and “aggressive tactics” and plans to hold joint patrols with the United States, on top of an inaugural trilateral coast guard exercise they held with Japan this week.
China maintains its coast guard is performing regular operations in what is Chinese sovereign territory.
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US Navy vessels sail by a Chinese island heavily fortified in the South China Sea
The US Navy has dispatched a destroyer to a disputed island in the South China Sea that Beijing has militarized in order to assert its claim to the territory.
The voyage took place as the Chinese military began its third day of a show of force surrounding Taiwan, a thousand miles away, close to the northern entrance to the South China Sea, in retaliation to a quick trip to the United States by Taiwan’s president.
An announcement from the US Navy’s 7th Fleet on Monday claimed that the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius had come within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands, also known as the Nansha Islands in China.
Mischief Reef, which lies in the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. But Beijing has asserted its claims to the island by building it up and placing military infrastructure on it.
The US contends such actions are in violation of the Law of the Sea Convention.
“Features like Mischief Reef that are submerged at high tide in their naturally formed state are not entitled to a territorial sea. The land reclamation efforts, installations, and structures built on Mischief Reef do not change this characterization under international law,” the US 7th Fleet statement said.
China claims almost all of the vast South China Sea as part of its territorial waters, including many distant islands and inlets in the disputed body of water, many of which – like Mischief Reef – Beijing has militarized.
A spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said the US destroyer “illegally intruded” into Chinese waters near Mischief Reef, whichBeijing calls Meiji Reef.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their nearby waters,” Air Force Senior Col. Tian Junli said in a statement.
The US destroyer’s so-called freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) defended the rights for vessels of any nation to operate in the area, the 7th Fleet statement said.
US warships regularly conduct such FONOPs in the South China Sea and Monday’s was the second in three weeks by the Milius, which on March 23 sailed near the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, in the northern part of the South China Sea.
“The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows – regardless of the location of excessive maritime claims and regardless of current events,” the 7th Fleet said in Monday’s statement.
After the March FONOP, Beijing claimed the US had violated its sovereignty while “undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, said.
Monday’s US FONOP came as Chinese forces entered their third day of large-scale military exercises around the island of Taiwan, the self-governing democracy to the north of the South China Sea that China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory despite never having ruled it.
Beijing launched the operations around Taiwan on Saturday, a day after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and the United States where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Beijing had repeatedly warned against Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy and had previously threatened to take “strong and resolute measures” if it went ahead.
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China’s navy claims US vessel entered South China Sea waters illegally
China’s navy said on Thursday it had tracked and driven out a U.S. destroyer that unlawfully entered waters around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Milius violated Chinese territorial waters, according to a statement from the military, jeopardizing peace and security in the busy waterway.
According to Tian Junli, a spokeswoman for China’s Southern Theatre Command, “the theater forces will maintain a high state of readiness at all times and take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
The U.S. Navy on Thursday disputed the Chinese military statement, saying the destroyer is conducting “routine operations” in the South China Sea and was not expelled.
“The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” a statement from the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said.
Tension between the United States and China has been growing in the area.
The United States has been shoring up alliances in the Asia-Pacific seeking to counter China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing seeks to advance its territorial claims.
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Philippines grants US wider access to military bases
The action comes amid worries about China’s assertiveness over Taiwan and in the contentious South China Sea.
According to a joint statement from the defence departments of the two nations, the Philippines and the United States have agreed to broaden their defence agreement, giving US troops access to four more military bases in the Southeast Asian country.
The deal was announced by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin while he was in Manila for talks with newly elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“The Philippines and the United States are proud to announce their plans to accelerate the full implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the agreement to designate four new Agreed Locations in strategic areas of the country and the substantial completion of the projects in the existing five Agreed Locations,” the joint statement said. It was published on the websites of the US Department of Defense and on the Philippines’ Department of National Defense.
EDCA forms part of a decades-long security alliance between the US and the Philippines, and allows US troops to rotate through five Philippine bases, including those near disputed waters.
It also allows for the US military to store defence equipment and supplies on those bases.
The statement said the expansion would make the two countries’ alliance “stronger and more resilient” and “accelerate modernization of our combined military capabilities”.
The statement did not elaborate on the new locations, but said they would “allow more rapid support for humanitarian and climate-related disasters in the Philippines”. The US had allocated more than $82 million towards infrastructure investments at EDCA’s existing five sites, it added.
Ties between the Philippines and the United States have warmed since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office last year [Jam Sta Rosa/Pool via Reuters] The expansion comes as China becomes increasingly assertive in pressing its claim to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, as well as in the South China Sea where it claims almost the entire waterway under its controversial nine-dash line. The Philippines, other Southeast Asian nations and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the sea, which is a major global trade route.
The relationship between the Philippines and the US – longtime allies – was strained under Marcos Jr’s predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who favoured China and threatened to sever ties with Washington and expel US troops.
But ties have warmed under the new administration, with US Vice President Kamala Harris visiting last November.
“This is really the dawn of a new era after a rocky few years,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Barnaby Lo, who is in Manila.
Tension in disputed seas
While most of the new bases are expected to be in Luzon, the western island of Palawan, facing the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, is expected to get an additional base as well.
A senior US defence official told reporters on Wednesday that the Philippines was under “day-to-day pressure from (China) in ways that contravene international law”.
The US aims to ensure “they have the capability to defend their own sovereignty”, the official said.
The Philippines has often found itself on the front line of Beijing’s aggressive tactics in the South China Sea, where China’s maritime militia has established an almost constant presence in Manila’s exclusive economic zone.
In 2012, China took control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines after a months-long standoff that began when Manila discovered Chinese fishing boats around the rocky outcrops.
Tensions rose again in 2021 when the Philippines protested against China’s “continuing illegal presence and activities” near its islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling – in a case brought by the Philippines – that its claim to the South China Sea was without merit.
China also claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its objective. Last year, after then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island, Beijing conducted major war games around and across the island.
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China, Philippines agree on a peaceful resolution of South China Sea solution
During their meeting in Beijing, Xi and Marcos decided to settle their differences regarding the South China Sea “through peaceful means.”
According to a joint statement from the two nations, China and the Philippines have decided to establish a direct communication channel on the South China Sea to settle disputes over the disputed waterway “through peaceful means”.
The deal was reached on Thursday, a day after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two leaders were trying to patch up their strained relationship as a result of Manila’s decision to request an arbitration ruling in 2016 regarding China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing has disagreed with the tribunal’s decision that China’s claims are invalid.
Since then, Manila has continued to raise concerns over reported Chinese construction activities on islands in the South China Sea – as well as the transformation of disputed reefs into artificial islands – and “swarming” by Beijing’s vessels in the disputed waters, which are rich in oil, gas and fishery resources.
The joint statement on Thursday said Xi and Marcos had an “in-depth and candid exchange of views on the situation in the South China Sea” and “emphasized that maritime issues do not comprise the sum-total of relations between the two countries”.
The two leaders also “agreed to appropriately manage differences through peaceful means”.
Both countries reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability as well as freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and establish “a direct communication mechanism” between their foreign ministries, the statement added.
Marcos’s three-day trip to Beijing, his first official visit to China as president, comes as the country re-emerges from a self-imposed border shutdown since the pandemic started in 2020 which has disrupted trade and hurt its economy.
The Philippine president is the first foreign leader hosted by China in 2023, and this “speaks volumes about the close ties” between the two countries, Xi told Marcos, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
In a video address released by his office on Wednesday, Marcos said both sides discussed “what we can do to move forward, to avoid possible mistakes, misunderstandings that could trigger a bigger problem than what we already have”.
Marcos also said he made the case for Filipino fishermen who have been denied access to their traditional areas of operation by China’s navy and coastguard.
“The president promised that we would find a compromise and find a solution that will be beneficial so that our fishermen might be able to fish again in their natural fishing grounds,” he said.
The joint statement added that the coastguards of China and the Philippines would meet “as soon as possible” to discuss “pragmatic cooperation”, and that the two countries will hold an annual dialogue on security.
It said both sides also agreed to resume talks on oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea and discussed cooperation on areas including solar, wind, electric vehicles and nuclear power.
On the economic front, China agreed to import more goods from the Philippines with the aim for bilateral trade to revert to or surpass pre-pandemic levels. The two sides are finalising rules for imports of fruits from the Philippines, which Marcos said would start to balance the trade.
Both sides also promised to boost tourist numbers and flights between both capitals, the statement said. Last year, only about 9,500 Chinese visited the Philippines, down from about 1.6 million before the pandemic.
Source: Aljazeera.com -
Chinese ship accused of confiscates suspected rocket debris from the Philippines
A Chinese coast guard ship has been accused of “forcefully retrieving” a floating object from a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea.
According to Philippine Navy Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, a Chinese vessel blocked their path twice before seizing the object.
China’s officials have yet to respond to the allegations.
It comes during the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to the Philippines.
According to Vice Adm Carlos, the debris was discovered on Sunday at 06:45 local time (22:45 GMT Saturday) near the Philippine-controlled Pagasa Island, also known as Thitu Island.
Officers responded to the scene and discovered a “metallic” unidentified floating object.
As they were towing the object back, a Chinese coast guard vessel with the bow number 5203 approached their location and “subsequently blocked their pre-plotted course twice”.
He said the Chinese boat then “forcefully retrieved” the object by cutting the towing line attached to the Philippines’ rubber boat. No one was injured in the incident, he added.
Spokesperson Cheryl Tindog said the sailors did not fight the seizure since it was “not a matter of life and death”.
The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs said they were aware of the incident and a review would be conducted.
Earlier this month, metal debris was similarly found off Busuanga island in western Palawan and in Calintaan town in Occidental Mindoro province.
Officials had said they believed the pieces were likely to be parts of China’s Long March 5B rocket, which blasted off earlier in November from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on Hainan island.
Hainan island is slightly more than 1,000km (621 miles) away from where the latest object was found.
China has previously been criticising for allowing rocket stages to fall back to Earth.
US space agency Nasa has in the past called on China to design rockets to disintegrate into smaller pieces upon re-entry, as is the international norm.
The incident comes as the US Vice President is due to visit the Filipino island of Palawan, which lies along the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea.
Ms Harris is the highest-ranking US official to visit since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took power, and the visit is likely aimed at reviving ties with Manila.
“We stand with you in defence of international rules and norms as it relates to the South China Sea,” Ms Harris told Mr Marcos at the start of talks.
The South China Sea is one of the most disputed regions in the world – with several countries claiming ownership of its small islands and reefs and with it, access to resources.
In recent years, China has been increasingly assertive over what it claims are its centuries-old claims to the contested region, and has been rapidly building up its military presence to back up those claims.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Tai