This photo taken on March 5, 2024 shows a China Coast Guard personnel placing a rubber fender during a near collision with the BRP Sindangan during a supply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. - AFP
MANILA: At least 30 Chinese vessels, including a People’s Liberation Army Navy ship, were spotted around areas in the South China Sea that the Philippines claims as part of its territory, according to its military.
Along with the PLA navy vessel, also sighted were a Chinese coast guard ship and six fishing boats near the Philippines-occupied Thitu Island, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla told reporters on Wednesday (March 20).
In Scarborough Shoal, a traditional Filipino fishing ground, the military spotted six Chinese coast guard vessels and eight Chinese militia ships, Padilla said. In Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines maintains a grounded World War-II era ship, there were six Chinese fishing boats and a coast guard vessel, she said.
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The Philippine military’s latest statement reflects the government’s intensifying maritime surveillance operations, as tensions between the Manila and Beijing have ratcheted up.
The Chinese boats were seen on Tuesday, the same day President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told Bloomberg that the threat to his nation from China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea is growing and that the Philippines "must do more to defend our territory.”
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to Manila this week, criticised China’s "provocative actions” in the contested waters as he reaffirmed the US security commitment to the Philippines.
Tensions between Manila and Beijing escalated anew this month following a collision between their coast guard ships during a Philippines resupply operation to its military outpost in Second Thomas Shoal.
Manila said then that two Chinese coast guard vessels also deployed water cannons against a Philippines-chartered supply boat, prompting the two nations to trade diplomatic complaints over the situation. - Bloomberg
