Watch: Chinese Ship Blasts US Ally's Boat With Water Cannon
The Chinese cutter can be seen conducting close-quarter maneuvers that Manila said caused a collision, damaging the smaller Philippine vessel and putting its occupants' lives "at risk."
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Philippine Coast Guard for comment.
The incident occurred Wednesday morning at Sandy Cay, a string of three sandbars near Thitu Island. Thitu is the only inhabited island in the Spratlys, home to around 250 residents, a modest military outpost, and the Philippines' only airstrip in the archipelago.
China claims the island and most of the South China Sea as part of its territory, and has in recent years stepped up patrols to assert control over the waters. Confrontations between the neighbors' maritime forces have on rare occasions left Filipino sailors injured and brought renewed attention to the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty and the threshold for drawing Washington into a potential conflict with nuclear-armed Beijing.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said in a statement Thursday that Philippine vessels were on a "routine" mission supporting a scientific team collecting sand samples near Sandy Cay.
In its attempt to disrupt the activity, Chinese coast guard vessel 21559 "sideswiped" the bow of one of the Philippine ships, the BRP Datu Sanday, damaging its bow and smokestack and "putting at risk the lives of its civilian personnel onboard," the agency said.
The Chinese ship also deployed its water cannon-reportedly the first such use against a Philippine fisheries vessel near Sandy Cay.
Despite what the bureau described as "aggressive interference, dangerous maneuvers, and illegal acts" by China, the Philippine team completed its research mission.
China's coast guard pushed back, accusing the U.S. ally of "illegally" intruding into the waters around Sandy Cay without permission.
Coast guard personnel "carried out control measures in accordance with the law and boarded the reef to verify the situation," state media quoted the agency as saying.
Sandy Cay, known in the Philippines as Pag-asa and in China as Tiexian Reef, was also the focus of controversy in late April.
China's coast guard posted a photo of personnel holding their national flag in a symbolic assertion of Beijing's sovereignty claim. Manila countered shortly after by dispatching a team to the feature to hold a photo-op with their own flag.
Liu Dejun, Chinese coast guard spokesperson, was quoted by state media Thursday: "The Philippine side also sent personnel to illegally land on Tiexian Jiao and carry out activities there. In response, CCG law enforcement personnel carried out control measures in accordance with the law and boarded the reef to verify the situation. On-site operations were conducted in a professional, and lawful manner."
China will almost certainly continue pressing its claims within the Philippines' maritime zone despite a 2016 decision by an international arbitral court dismissing these claims.
The Philippines is expected to continue challenging Chinese incursions, strengthen security ties with the U.S. and regional allies, and advance its ambitious military modernization program.
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