The Philippines and China traded accusations about a maritime confrontation on Wednesday around the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a day after Beijing submitted a chart of the feature’s shore to the U.N. to bolster its claim over it.
Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc and in China as Huangyan Dao, is a triangular chain of reefs about 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from Luzon, the main Philippine island. Claimed by China, the Philippines and Taiwan, the shoal has been under Beijing’s de-facto control since 2012.
China’s Coast Guard said four Philippine ships had attempted to enter China’s territorial waters around the shoal and had “dangerously approached” its “normal law enforcement patrol vessels,” prompting an “exercised control” by the Chinese side over their counterparts, said a Chinese spokesperson, Liu Dejun, in a statement.
But the Philippines said the China Coast Guard fired water cannon and “sideswiped” a government vessel during a maritime patrol near the shore.
The Chinese ship “fired a water cannon ... aiming directly at the vessel’s navigational antennas,” said Philippine coast guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela in a statement.
The Chinese vessel then “intentionally sideswiped” the ship before launching a second water cannon attack, Tarriela added.
Video released by the Philippines appeared to show a China Coast Guard ship hitting the right side of the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, a fisheries department vessel, with the crew shouting “Collision! Collision!”.
The latest confrontation between the two countries’ vessels came a day after China “deposited” a statement regarding “baselines of the territorial sea” adjacent to the Scarborough Shoal to the U.N., calling it “legitimate measures” to defend its territorial sovereignty.
China announced last month the baselines of its territorial sea around Scarborough Shoal to strengthen its claim over the feature that lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
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The Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the U.N. said on Monday that China was “fulfilling its obligations” under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS.
A baseline under the UNCLOS is a line that runs along the coast of a country or an island, from which the extent of the territorial sea and other maritime zones such as the exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf are measured.
In 2016, a U.N. arbitration tribunal rejected all of China’s claims to reefs in the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal. The tribunal also determined that the shoal is a rock rather than an island.
As a result, while the shoal may qualify for a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, it cannot establish an exclusive economic zone. Instead, it is recognized as part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
Despite the international ruling that China’s claim over the shore has no legal basis, it has deployed patrol boats that the Philippines says harass its vessels and prevent its fishermen from accessing a lagoon there.
Edited by RFA Staff.
BenarNews journalist Jason Gutierrez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.