Philippine officials have said a coast guard ship and a
fisheries vessel were damaged when Chinese coast guard vessels
fired water cannons at them while on their way to the disputed
Scarborough shoal on Tuesday to help Filipino fishermen at sea.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, Philippine coast guard spokesperson on
South China Sea matters, said their Chinese counterparts have
elevated tensions after it directly used water cannon against
one of its vessels for the first time.
"It just goes to show that Goliath is becoming more Goliath.
They don't hesitate to use brute force to violate international
law," Tarriela told a briefing.
China has previously used water cannons against Philippine
navy-crewed civilian supply vessels in the region.
No country has sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, a prime
fishing patch close to major shipping lanes that is used by
several countries. The shoal falls inside the Philippines'
exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and has been a constant source of
flashpoint between it and China.
Tarriela added China's actions do not count as an armed attack
against a Philippine vessel, but he said China has been raising
the pressure of its water cannons which have damaged their
ships.
The Philippines has a longstanding mutual defence treaty with
the United States and Washington has pledged its "ironclad
commitment" to defending its ally against an armed attack on
Filipino military and public vessels, including coast guard
ships, anywhere in the South China Sea.
A spokesperson at China's embassy in Manila said Scarborough
shoal, which it calls Huangyan Dao, "has always been China's
territory" and urged the Philippines to "stop making
infringement and provocations at once and not to challenge
China’s resolve to defend our sovereignty".
China claims sovereignty over much of the South China Sea, a
conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce,
including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Brunei.
An international tribunal in 2016 said China's expansive claim
had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and
Lincoln Feast.)
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