Manila summoned Beijing\u2019s envoy on Monday after the China Coast Guard blocked and water cannoned Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos said.<\/p>\n
The incident happened on Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies for Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law in blocking and firing water cannon at the re-supply mission, which prevented one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal.<\/p>\n
Another charter boat was successful in unloading its cargo.<\/p>\n
China said it had taken \u201cnecessary controls\u201d against Philippines boats that had \u201cillegally\u201d entered its waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur secretary of foreign affairs summoned Ambassador Huang today and gave him a note verbale including pictures, video about what happened and we are awaiting their reply,\u201d Marcos told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe position of China, of course, is they say \u2018this is ours so we are defending it\u2019 and we, for our part, are saying \u2018no, we own it so we are defending it\u2019,\u201d said Marcos. \u201cSo that becomes a grey area that we are discussing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese actions, saying they were carried out by the coast guard and \u201cmaritime militia\u201d, and that they directly threatened regional peace and stability.<\/p>\n
Britain, Australia, Canada and the European Union also criticised Beijing\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from China\u2019s nearest major landmass of Hainan island.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the contested waters, Manila says.<\/p>\n
The Philippines has issued more than 400 diplomatic protests to Beijing since 2020 over its \u201cillegal activities\u201d in the South China Sea, the foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal. We are committed to Ayungin Shoal,\u201d National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters on Monday, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manila summoned Beijing\u2019s envoy on Monday after the China Coast Guard blocked and water cannoned Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos said. The incident happened on Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies for Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-347646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n