Manila says China's coast guard harassed local fishermen during a government food security mission last week in a disputed part of the South China Sea.
Beijing, which claims most of the sea as its territory, said the Philippine vessels were "illegally" intruding at Iroquois Reef.
The reef is situated at the southern end of Reed Bank in the northeastern part of the Kalayaan Island Group, which the Philippines claims as part of its province of Palawan. The feature is well within the the U.S. treaty ally's internationally recognized 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and some 700 miles from the nearest Chinese province, Hainan.
To support local fishermen, who are sometimes expelled from traditional fishing grounds by Chinese forces, the Southeast Asian country's coast guard and fisheries bureau have stepped up their presence under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
On Thursday, the two agencies were deploying "aggregate" devices (payao) to attract fish near Iroquois Reef, with the support of volunteers in fishing boats, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in a social media post.
A pair of Chinese coast guard vessels then arrived on the scene and began "threatening" the fishing boats, Tarriela said. He pointed out that those particular Chinese ships regularly take part in China's blockades of Philippine supply missions to another Beijing-claimed feature, Second Thomas Shoal.
Video footage uploaded by the spokesperson shows Chinese coast guard personnel manning a water cannon as they engage in close up maneuvers, apparently with the intention of intimidating the crew of the smaller vessel.
This "demonstrat[es] China's unlawful behavior aimed at depriving the Filipinos of their rights to access the resources in our exclusive economic zone. This aggressive action stems from China's greed and unfounded claim that these waters belong to them based on their imaginary dashed line," Tarriela said.
Footage shared to X (formerly Twitter) by GMA Integrated News reporter Mav Gonzales appears to show a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol and reconnaissance aircraft circling the area during the mission. She cited the coast guard as saying there had been no U.S.-Philippine government coordination.
On Saturday, Chinese coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu accused the Philippines of deploying vessels to "illegally operate" near the reef.
China has "indisputable sovereignty" over South China Sea features, he said, adding that the Philippines had "illegally violated the law and provoked under the guise of so-called 'fishing protection,' organized the media to deliberately incite and mislead, and continued to undermine stability in the South China Sea."
Chinese state media outlet the Global Times also uploaded video of the incident to X, saying the Philippines' "payao" devices were harmful to the environment and that the China coast guard "handled the matters in reasonable, legal professional manner."
"'Exclusive' video taken by the criminal to show off its crime? Even if payao harms the environment, it's still within the Philippines sovereign rights to manage that in its EEZ," Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, wrote in response to the post. "Per UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), Beijing is clearly undermining Manila's legitimate exercise of such right."
The Armed Forces of the Philippines and Chinese foreign ministry didn't respond to written requests for comment by publishing time.
Over the past year, the Philippines has ramped up its documentation of missions to contested areas, including by allowing more reporters to embed on government vessels. This has rankled Beijing, which often accuses its neighbor of hyping the issue and of acting as a pawn in U.S. efforts to contain China.
Washington and Manila share a seven-decade-old Mutual Defense Treaty that President Joe Biden has affirmed extends to Philippine assets anywhere in the South China Sea.
On Thursday, Biden will host Marcos as well as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the first ever trilateral summit between the countries' leaders. Regional security is expected to feature in their discussions.
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About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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