MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine military denounced the "excessive and offensive" deployment of a water cannon by a Chinese coast guard ship to prevent a Filipino supply boat from bringing more troops, food, water, and gasoline to a Philippine-occupied shoal in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday.
The tense standoff at the Second Thomas Shoal on Saturday was the latest flare-up in the long-running territorial disputes between China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.
Disputes in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, have long been considered as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the region's competition between the US and China. Despite international rulings that invalidated Beijing's vast territorial claims, such as one issued in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague, the Chinese communist regime maintains ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway.
According to Philippine military and coast guard officials, Philippine navy personnel on two chartered supply boats were cruising toward Second Thomas, escorted by Philippine coast guard ships, when a Chinese coast guard ship approached and used a powerful water cannon to block the Filipinos from the shoal that China also claims.
The Chinese ship's actions were "in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board" the Philippine navy-chartered boat and breached international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which did not specify if any of its sailors were harmed, the incident violated the Law of the Sea Convention.
According to the Philippine military, the "excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels" near the shoal prevented one of the two Filipino boats from unloading supplies needed by Filipino troops guarding the shoal onboard a long-marooned Philippine navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre.
It urged the Chinese coast guard and the Chinese regime's central military commission to "act with caution and responsibility in order to avoid miscalculations and accidents that endanger people's lives."
Several governments raised alarm about the Chinese ship's behavior.
The US promptly reaffirmed its support for the Philippines and reiterated its commitment to protect its long-standing treaty partner when Filipino public vessels and soldiers are attacked, especially in the South China Sea.
The United States State Department said in a statement that by "firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, PRC ships interfered with the Philippines' lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of Philippine vessels and crew."
It went on to say that the PRC's new moves in the South China Sea constitute a direct danger to "regional peace and stability."
Australia underlined its worry, calling the Chinese coast guard ship's activities "dangerous and destabilizing."
Japan expressed its support for the Philippines, saying that "harassment and action that infringe on lawful maritime activities and endangers navigational safety" were "completely unacceptable."
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not immediately respond, but has lodged a huge number of diplomatic objections in recent years in response to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) increasingly hostile activities. Officials from the CCP did not immediately respond to the event.
The CCP has long requested that the Philippines evacuate its tiny naval detachment and pull away the operational but ailing BRP Sierra Madre. The naval ship was purposely stranded on the shoal in 1999, and it now serves as a fragile symbol of Manila's claim to the atoll.
Chinese ships had obstructed and shadowed naval vessels providing food and supplies to Filipino sailors aboard the ship on the shoal, which had been encircled for years by Chinese coast guard ships and a swarm of Chinese fishing boats—suspected to be manned by militias.
While the US makes no claims to the South China Sea, it has frequently condemned the CCP's aggressive behavior and sent warships and fighter jets on patrols and military exercises with regional allies to protect freedom of navigation and overflight, which it claims is in America's national interest.
