Thread: Philippines condemns China's actions in South China Sea against fishing vessels

MANILA: The Philippines condemned China's "illegal and aggressive actions" in the South China Sea on Saturday (Dec 9), saying its coast guard had fired water cannon at a Philippine fisheries bureau vessel conducting a regular resupply mission.
The Philippine task force for the South China Sea, an inter-agency government body, called for China to stop its "aggressive activities" in the Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by both countries.


US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said in a post on the social media platform X that China's behaviour "violates international law and endangers lives and livelihoods".


She said the US stood by the Philippines in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.


China said earlier that it took "control measures" against three Philippine fishing vessels that had intruded into waters near Scarborough Shoal, state media reported.


The incident comes ahead of Dec 10, when the Philippines plans to deploy a Christmas convoy of around 40 Philippine vessels to distribute gifts and other provisions to residents in Thitu island, the Philippines' largest occupied island in the South China Sea, and to troops garrisoned on an ageing warship in the Second Thomas shoal.



"DANGEROUS MANOEUVRES"


The Philippines task force said three fisheries bureau vessels were on a supply mission on Saturday to provide oil and groceries to more than 30 Filipino fishing vessels near the Scarborough shoal when they came under fire from Chinese water cannons at least eight times.

A fisheries vessel was "directly and deliberately targeted by the China Coast Guard", the task force said, causing damage to communication and navigation equipment.


"To prevent the distribution of humanitarian support is not only illegal but also inhumane," the task force said, adding that China deployed boats to drive away Filipino fishing vessels awaiting supply, and to illegally install a floating barrier.


Chinese Maritime Militia vessels were also reported to have engaged in "dangerous manoeuvres" and deployed a long-range acoustic device that resulted in temporary discomfort and incapacitation to some Filipino crew, the task force said.


The Scarborough Shoal is located within the Philippines' 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing seized it in 2012 and forced fishermen from the Philippines to travel further for smaller catches.


China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than US$3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China's claims had no legal basis.

Philippines condemns China's actions in South China Sea against fishing vessels - CNA

Philippines, China accuse each other of ship ramming

Updated at 2:02 p.m. ET on 2023-12-10


The latest bout of maritime aggression against Philippine boats in the South China Sea has steeled Manila’s resolve to defend its waters, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said Sunday, after three incidents involving Chinese vessels over the weekend.


Beijing and Manila traded accusations of harassment and ramming on Sunday as the Philippine Coast Guard conducted a resupply mission to a military outpost at Second Thomas Shoal.


A day earlier, Manila accused the Chinese coast guard of deploying water cannon and painful sound blasts against boats ferrying supplies to Filipino fishermen near Scarborough shoal.


Meanwhile, a civilian "Christmas convoy" that planned to deliver holiday cheer and supplies to troops and fishermen in disputed parts of the sea was ordered back to shore after four Chinese vessels started shadowing its lead ship, said ATIN ITO, the group organizing the effort.


“The aggression and provocations perpetrated by the China Coast Guard and their Chinese Maritime Militia against our vessels and personnel over the weekend have only further steeled our determination to defend and protect our nation's sovereignty,” Marcos wrote on X.


The features known to Filipinos as Ayungin Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc are "an integral part of our archipelago," he added.


“No one but the Philippines has a legitimate right or legal basis to operate anywhere in the West Philippine Sea. The illegal presence in our waters and dangerous actions against our citizens is an outright and blatant violation of international law and the rules-based international order.”




Ramming allegations


Earlier in the day, a spokesman said Philippine civilian supply vessels on a routine resupply and rotation mission to the BRP Sierra Madre – the old landing ship that Manila deliberately grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal to serve as an outpost in 1999 – were “harassed, blocked, and executed dangerous maneuvers on” by the Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels.


Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard’s spokesman, posted on the social media site X a statement by the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea under Manila’s jurisdiction, saying that the resupply boat Unaizah Mae 1 (UM1) was rammed by the Chinese coast guard ship CCG 21556.


The Chinese coast guard earlier issued a statement saying that at 06:39 a.m. the UM1 “ignored CCG repeated stern warnings, violated the COLREGs (Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea), swerved in an unprofessional and dangerous manner, and deliberately collided into the CCG boat 21556, resulting in scratches, for which the Philippines is fully responsible.”


Ship ramming is generally considered an act of violence and could cause serious damage to vessels, as well as injuries to the crew on board.


There have been instances of ship ramming in the South China Sea but no state has ever officially sanctioned this dangerous tactic.


The previous time Manila accused Chinese vessels of ramming its ships was on Oct. 22, also in the waters off the Second Thomas Shoal, known by Filipinos as Ayungin Shoal and by the Chinese as Ren’ai Jiao. China denied it.


The Philippines afterwards summoned the Chinese ambassador and filed a diplomatic protest against China’s action.


The United States also expressed concern, issuing a warning that Washington is obligated to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under armed attack, including "those of its coast guard — anywhere in the South China Sea."



Cat and mouse


Beijing and Manila have been playing cat and mouse around the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines is making regular resupply missions to the troops stationed on the Sierra Madre and the Chinese coast guard has been trying to prevent them.


The statement from the Philippine National Task Force said that on Sunday morning “CCG vessel 5204 deployed a water cannon against the Philippine supply vessels causing severe damage to M/L [motor launch] Kalavaan's engines, disabling the vessel and seriously endangering the lives of its crew.”


It also showed photos of the Kalavaan being water cannoned and then towed to port.

On Saturday, Manila accused the Chinese coast guard of deploying water cannon, a floating barrier and painful sound blasts against boats ferrying supplies to Filipino fishermen in disputed waters near another shoal in the South China Sea.


Vessels from Manila's Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources were targeted by water cannon "at least eight times" as they attempted to deliver food and fuel to more than 30 Filipino fishing boats near Scarborough Shoal, said a statement by the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea.


The China Coast Guard responded by saying it had used "control measures in accordance with the law" against the Philippine boats as they "intruded" into the waters adjacent to the island.


Analysts say that Manila has embarked on a tactic of “assertive transparency” in reporting incidents in disputed waters.


“Although the term was coined this year, the practice of assertive transparency has been used ever since people dealt with gray zone tactics,” said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.


Gray zone activities are not explicit acts of war but can be harmful to a nation’s security.


“For example, during the 2014 oil rig crisis between China and Vietnam, Hanoi ferried international journalists to the site of the oil rig confrontation so they could shed maximum light on the ‘gray zone’.”


“This was assertive transparency in practice, although nobody used that term to describe the practice in 2014,” the political analyst told RFA.


“This practice has proven to be effective,” said Vuving, adding “The other key was perseverance.”

Philippines, China accuse each other of ship ramming — BenarNews

Originally Posted by misskit

Philippines, China accuse each other of ship ramming

We know the chinkies are the only ones doing it and are lying as usual.

Parasites that they are.

Philippine military chief says Chinese ship ‘rammed’ his boat in disputed waters

The chief of the Philippine armed forces was aboard a small wooden-hulled boat when, he said, a Chinese ship hit it during a series of weekend incidents that Manila was calling a “serious escalation” of tensions in disputed waters.


Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said he was on the Unaizah Mae 1, one of three Philippine boats allegedly blasted by Chinese water cannon and piercing sounds during a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine military outpost at Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal in the South China Sea.


“It was rammed. The Chinese coast guard were shadowing us from the start, and they got as close as 500 meters, 200 meters, then 100 meters,” Brawner told DZBB, a Tagalog-language radio station, on Monday.


“When dawn broke, we clearly saw that the Chinese militia [ship] tried to cut our path. Their maneuver was very dangerous.”


Also on Monday, Philippine officials presented images and videos of the incident.


“This is a serious escalation on the part of the agents of the People’s Republic of China,” Jonathan Malaya, spokesman for the National Security Council spokesman, said during a news conference.


In Beijing, meanwhile, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters that a Philippine boat had traveled “headlong” into a Chinese ship.


Brawner said he slept aboard the Unaizah Mae 1 and oversaw “legitimate radio challenges” to Chinese boats in the area, adding that two China Coast Guard ships and three Chinese maritime militia ships were following the small Philippine boat. About 40 Chinese ships in all were stationed in the waters in and around Ayungin Shoal, he said.


“They started shadowing us on Saturday and it continued at 4 a.m. the following day, and until we – the Unaizah Mae – reached BRP Sierra Madre at 8 a.m.,” he said.


Brawner said he was “very angry” about the harassment of the resupply mission.


“The Chinese were not told that I was aboard Unaizah Mae 1, so maybe that’s why it happened and they did not change tactics,” Brawner said during the radio interview.


“While their aggressive actions have increased, our directive to our troops is to practice maximum tolerance. That’s why we were just trying to evade them.”

The latest incident forced government officials to order a civilian “Christmas convoy” that had been set up to deliver holiday supplies to troops and fishermen in disputed waters to return to shore, according to ATIN ITO, the group organizing the effort.


The BRP Sierra Madre is a rusted World War II-era navy ship that Manila grounded deliberately to mark its territorial claim at Ayungin Shoal, a reef in the contested Spratly Islands that lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.


Manila also accused the Chinese coast guard of firing water cannon and painful sound blasts against boats that were ferrying supplies to Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal, another disputed area, over the weekend.


Dueling protests


On Monday, Manila’s foreign affairs department said it had filed a formal protest to Beijing and summoned China’s envoy, while the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, announced that Beijing had lodged its own protest over the incident.


“[A] Philippine vessel went headlong towards Ren’ai Jiao’s lagoon and dangerously rammed a CCG ship on the scene,” Mao Ning said, using an acronym for the China Coast Guard. “This gravely violated China’s sovereignty and jeopardized the safety of the Chinese ships and personnel.”


Ren’ai Jiao is the Chinese name for Second Thomas Shoal.


“The root cause is that the Philippines has broken its promise and refused to tow away the illegally grounded warship at the reef and attempted to reinforce it on a large scale in an attempt to permanently occupy Ren’ai Jiao,” she said.


In response to the tensions in the waterway over the weekend, the United States, the European Union and Japan all issued statements condemning what they described as “dangerous actions” by the Chinese ships.


When a reporter asked her about a U.S. statement calling on China to stop “dangerous and destabilizing” actions in the South China Sea, Mao Ning said her nation would take the necessary steps to ensure territorial sovereignty.


“[T]he U.S. has been fanning disputes, misrepresenting facts, stoking confrontation and undermining regional peace and stability,” she said during the foreign ministry’s daily news briefing in Beijing.


Philippine military chief says Chinese ship ‘rammed’ his boat in disputed waters — BenarNews

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

We know the chinkies are the only ones doing it and are lying as usual.

Parasites that they are.

Curious

Was it your ex-girlfriend or the guy she ran off with, who was chinese ?

Originally Posted by helge

Curious

Was it your ex-girlfriend or the guy she ran off with, who was chinese ?

Did your chinky missus tell you to write that?

Hoohoo's does.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

chinky missus

She'd be honoured

Chinese ships have been using water cannons on boats of PH coast guard/ military and PH fishermen for several months now.

During Pres. Marcos Jr's recent visit to the US, one of the topics discussed was the presence of Chinese ships in that area. Let's see what happens in the next few months...

I really like the idea of aggressive transparency. It will eventually undermine chines aggression and behaviour.

The Chinese forces hate being obliged to take any kind of public humiliation.

Originally Posted by Switch

I really like the idea of aggressive transparency. It will eventually undermine chines aggression and behaviour.

The Chinese forces hate being obliged to take any kind of public humiliation.

They're just bullies, and should be treated as such.