The US yesterday renewed a warning that it would defend its treaty ally if Philippine forces were to be attacked in the South China Sea after a Chinese Coast Guard ship allegedly hit a Philippine patrol vessel with a laser.
The US Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila sent a diplomatic protest to the Chinese embassy that “condemned the shadowing, harassment, dangerous maneuvers, directing of military-grade laser, and illegal radio challenges” by the Chinese ship.
The incident took place on Monday last week when the Chinese Coast Guard ship beamed high-grade lasers to block Philippine patrol vessel the BRP Malapascua from approaching Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) on a resupply mission to Philippine forces there, Philippine officials said.
Photo: AP
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) on Monday said that a vessel trespassed into Chinese waters without permission.
China claims the shoal, which is part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島). Taiwan and the Philippines also claim the feature.
Chinese Coast Guard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint at the site in accordance with China’s law and international law,” Wang said, without elaborating or mentioning the use of a laser.
US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said that China’s “dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law and undermines the rules-based international order.”
“The United States stands with our Philippine allies,” Price said in a statement.
An armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft, including those of the coast guard in the South China Sea, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under a 1951 treaty, he said.
The treaty obligates the allies to help defend one another in case of an external attack, he added.
Price said that the Chinese Coast Guard’s “provocative and unsafe” conduct interfered with the Philippines’ “lawful operations” in and around Second Thomas Shoal.
Price said that the “legally binding decision” of a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea underscored that China “has no lawful maritime claims to the Second Thomas Shoal.”
China has long rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said that it had filed a diplomatic protest to the Chinese embassy over the “latest aggressive activities of the Chinese Coast Guard against Philippine official vessels” near the shoal.
Additional reporting by AFP
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