The China Coast Guard fired water cannons and “sideswiped” a government vessel yesterday during a maritime patrol near Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), the Philippines said yesterday after Beijing said it had “exercised control” over the ship.
Tensions flared as Manila released a video appearing to show a China Coast Guard ship firing a torrent of water at the Philippine fisheries department vessel BRP Datu Pagbuaya.
Other footage apparently taken from the Philippine ship showed its crew shouting “collision, collision” as the much larger Chinese vessel nears its right-hand side before crashing into it.
Photo: AFP / National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea
The water cannon was aimed “directly at the vessel’s navigational antennas,” the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said in a joint statement.
The Chinese vessel “intentionally sideswiped” the ship before launching a second water cannon attack, the statement said.
The China Coast Guard said in an initial statement that Philippine ships “came dangerously close” and that its crew’s actions had been “in accordance with the law.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
In a later statement, it accused Manila of making “bogus accusations in an attempt to mislead international understanding.”
It said the Philippine ship had “turned at a great angle and reversed, deliberately colliding” with the Chinese ship.
Video released by Manila said to be drone footage of the collision does not show the Philippine ship reversing.
The China Coast Guard later released a video it said showed the Philippine ship ramming its vessel.
The 20-second video showed the moments just before and after the collision, but not the lead-up.
China seized Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the South China Sea that is also claimed by Taiwan — from the Philippines in 2012.
The shoal lies 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Philippine officials said at a news conference there had been another incident on Wednesday near Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗吵), in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims.
A China Coast Guard vessel “intentionally rammed” another fisheries department vessel, which “significantly destroyed some of her structure,” an official said.
The Chinese side has not released a statement on the Sabina incident.
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