Manila yesterday summoned Beijing’s envoy after the China Coast Guard blocked and used a water cannon on Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said.
The incident happened on Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies to Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Photo: AFP
The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law by blocking and firing a water cannon at the resupply mission, preventing one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal.
Another charter boat successfully unloaded its cargo.
“Our Secretary of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Huang [Xilian, 黃溪連] today and gave him a note verbale including pictures, video about what happened, and we are awaiting their reply,” Marcos told reporters.
“The position of China, of course, is they say: ‘This is ours so we are defending it,’ and we, for our part, are saying: ‘No, we own it so we are defending it.’ So that becomes a gray area that we are discussing,” he said.
China appeared to be “trying to gauge our commitment to supply our troops” at the shoal, Philippine National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters yesterday.
“For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal,” Malaya added, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal.
China maintained over the weekend that it had taken “necessary controls” against Philippine boats that “illegally” entered its waters, and yesterday said it had been “professional and restrained.”
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Chinese attack, saying it contravenes the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, threatens the security and “status quo” of the South China Sea, and undermines regional peace and stability.
Taiwan calls on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid the use of force or any dangerous actions to prevent escalating tensions, it said.
The South China Sea islands are part of the territory of Taiwan, which is entitled to all rights over the islands and their waters in accordance with international law and the law of the sea, it said.
Taiwan calls for disputes in the area to be settled peacefully, and is willing, through negotiations conducted on the basis of equality, to work with other countries to advance peace and stability in the South China Sea, it added.
The US Department of State also condemned China’s actions, saying they directly threatened regional peace and stability.
Beijing hit back by saying Washington had disregarded “the facts.”
“What the United States is doing is to blatantly support the Philippines’ violation of China’s sovereignty, and this plot is doomed to fail,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
Britain, Australia, Canada and the EU also criticized China’s conduct.
Additional reporting by Liu Tzu-hsuan
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