Move FM Australian News

BEIJING, China: Tensions between China and the Philippines flared again this week after a confrontation near the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, with both sides trading accusations over an incident involving coast guard vessels.

China’s coast guard accused a Philippine ship of deliberately colliding with one of its vessels in waters Beijing calls Huangyan Island. The Philippines rejected the charge, countering that Chinese forces used high-powered water cannons against its ship, leaving it badly damaged and injuring a crew member.

According to a statement from China’s coast guard, more than 10 Philippine government vessels approached the shoal from different directions before being repelled with water cannons. Beijing’s account portrays the clash as a defensive response to what it views as a violation of Chinese sovereignty.

Manila, however, presented a starkly different version of events. The Philippine coast guard reported that two Chinese ships fired water cannons at the BRP Datu Gumbay Piang for nearly half an hour. The force of the blasts, it said, shattered a glass window on the bridge, injuring one crew member, while flooding caused electrical short circuits and damaged air-conditioning units on board. The deluge also battered the captain’s cabin, leaving the vessel temporarily impaired.

The incident came less than a week after Beijing announced that it was designating part of Scarborough Shoal as a national nature reserve. Manila swiftly rejected this move and lodged a formal diplomatic protest. The Philippines calls the shoal Bajo de Masinloc and maintains that it lies within its exclusive economic zone, about 200 kilometers west of Luzon.

Adding to the tensions, the Philippine coast guard said a Chinese navy warship broadcast a warning over the radio announcing live-fire exercises in the area. This message reportedly spread panic among Filipino fishermen operating nearby. Philippine vessels had been dispatched on September 16 to provide fuel, ice, drinking water, and other support to more than 35 fishing boats around the shoal.

The dispute underscores the increasingly fraught environment in the South China Sea, a vital maritime corridor claimed in whole or in part by several countries but where Beijing asserts sweeping control. Scarborough Shoal, in particular, has been a flashpoint since a 2012 standoff that left China in de facto control, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling in The Hague that invalidated Beijing’s expansive maritime claims.

The latest clash drew swift reactions from Manila’s allies. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Beijing’s actions as “yet another coercive move to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors.” Britain and Australia voiced concern, while Canada’s embassy in Manila criticized the use of environmental designations as a pretext for asserting sovereignty over disputed waters.

With both sides refusing to back down, the Scarborough Shoal remains a volatile flashpoint where maritime security, international law, and the livelihoods of thousands of Filipino fishermen are once again caught in the middle.