MANILA: The Philippine navy mentioned Wednesday the Chinese coast guard rammed and boarded Filipino navy boats in a violent confrontation in the South China Sea this week in which a Filipino sailor misplaced a thumb.
Monday’s incident was the most recent in a sequence of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in current months as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to the disputed space.
Filipino navy chief General Romeo Brawner alleged the Chinese boarders had been armed with swords, spears, and knives in the incident off Second Thomas Shoal.
He denounced the Chinese motion as “piracy” and demanded the return of seized weapons and different tools, in addition to reparations for broken gadgets.
China defended its actions, with its international ministry saying on Wednesday that “no direct measures” had been taken in opposition to Filipino personnel.
Images from China’s Coast Guard shared by state media purported to indicate the confrontation on Monday, declaring: “The Chinese coast guard carried out boarding and inspection of a Philippine boat for the primary time”.
Photos confirmed two Chinese vessels approaching what it mentioned was a smaller Philippine vessel from both facet whereas one other Chinese boat tailed intently behind.
They confirmed Chinese coast guard officers then boarding the encircled vessel.
eNM was not capable of independently confirm the photographs.
“Law enforcement measures taken by the China Coast Guard on the web site had been skilled and restrained,“ international ministry spokesman Lin Jian instructed a daily information briefing in Beijing.
Second Thomas Shoal hosts a tiny Philippine garrison stationed on a intentionally beached outdated warship and has been the main target of a sequence of current confrontations.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken spoke along with his Filipino counterpart on Wednesday in regards to the current “escalatory actions” by China, the State Department mentioned in an announcement.
Blinken mentioned China’s actions “undermine regional peace and stability and underscored the United States’ ironclad commitments to the Philippines underneath our Mutual Defense Treaty.”
Beijing claims nearly the whole lot of the South China Sea, brushing apart competing claims from a number of Southeast Asian nations together with the Philippines and a global ruling that its stance has no authorized foundation.
Second Thomas Shoal lies about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and greater than 1,000 kilometres from China’s nearest main landmass, Hainan island.
– ‘Bare arms’ –
Brawner described the incident after visiting the injured sailor in Palawan, saying Filipino personnel had “fought again with our naked arms” after Chinese coast guard personnel from eight vessels boarded their rigid-hulled inflatable boats.
“They took weapons and different tools, destroyed our tools on board, together with the motors. They punctured our rigid-hulled inflatable boats,“ he mentioned.
“We are demanding that the Chinese return our rifles and our tools and we’re additionally demanding from them to pay for the damages that they’ve brought about,“ Brawner mentioned.
“For me that is piracy.”
Rear Admiral Alfonso Torres, commander for the Philippines’ South China Sea forces, instructed reporters “seven firearms had been looted and forcibly taken” by the Chinese coast guard.
He mentioned communication and navigation tools and an outboard motor had been destroyed and the cell phones of the Filipino crew had been taken.
Brawner mentioned the Chinese coast guard carried “bolos” — a kind of single-edged sword — in addition to spears and knives.
“Our troops had none of these,“ he mentioned.
The Philippine navy mentioned the seized weapons had been supposed for Filipino troops manning the BRP Sierra Madre warship on the shoal. The crew of the boarded boats had been underneath orders to not show their weapons, it mentioned.
China deploys coast guard and different boats to patrol the waters round Second Thomas Shoal and has turned a number of reefs into synthetic militarised islands.
It has stepped up strikes in opposition to Philippine vessels in the realm in current months.
Torres mentioned Monday’s confrontation started when one of many Filipino boats was “illegally rammed” at “excessive velocity” by a Chinese coast guard boat.
The injured Filipino Naval Special Operations Group member misplaced a thumb when the Chinese vessel landed on prime of the bow, Torres mentioned.
