|
It was the first time the Philippines has complained of
dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or
coast guard vessels, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took
office in 2022.
Two People's Liberation Army Air Force aircraft executed a
dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a NC-212i
Philippine air force propeller aircraft conducting a routine
maritime patrol over the Scarborough shoal on Thursday morning,
the military said in a statement.
It "endangered the lives of our personnel undertaking maritime
security operations recently within Philippine maritime zones",
said Philippines armed forces chief Romeo Brawner, adding that
the Chinese aircraft interfered with lawful flight operations
and violated international law on aviation safety.
China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal one of two
flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China.
Beijing on Wednesday organized a combat patrol near the shoal,
which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and
refers to as Huangyan island.
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for
more than $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce, including
parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Brunei.
China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of
Arbitration in the Hague that Beijing's expansive claims had no
basis under international law.
The Philippines in May accused Chinese fishermen of destroying
the ecological environment in Scarborough with cyanide fishing,
harvesting giant clams and other protected marine creatures, as
well as scarring coral reefs, which China denied.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by William Mallard)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
