Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons and blocked and rammed a Philippine fisheries vessel Sunday in the disputed South China Sea, where hostilities between the Asian neighbors have flared alarmingly at sea and spread into the air in recent weeks.

China and the Philippines blamed each other for the tense confrontations in the high seas off Sabina Shoal, which has become a new flashpoint, where both have deployed coast guard ships on suspicion that either one may take steps to seize the uninhabited atoll.

The Chinese coast guard said that it took action against a Philippine vessel, which entered waters in the vicinity of Sabina and ignored warnings, leading to a minor collision.

Chinese coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu said that the Philippine ship sailed toward the Chinese coast guard ship “unprofessionally” and “dangerously,” causing the two vessels to brush against each other. The Philippine vessel had journalists onboard to take pictures to “distort facts,” he said.

"The responsibility is totally on the Philippines’ side. We sternly warn that the Philippine side must immediately stop the infringement and provocation, otherwise it must bear all consequences,” Gan said without elaborating on the control measures that the Chinese side employed.

A Philippine government task force said that a vessel of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the BRP Datu Sanday, “encountered aggressive and dangerous maneuvers from eight People’s Republic of China maritime vessels" while cruising to Sabina, causing its engine to fail and hampering its effort to provide diesel, food and medical supplies to Filipino fishermen.

The Chinese coast guard ships, which were backed by a navy ship, “made close perilous maneuvers that resulted in ramming, blasted horns and deployed water cannons against the BFAR vessel,” endangering its crew, according to the Philippine task force, which oversees the territorial disputes.

"The Philippine government calls on the People’s Republic of China to halt these provocative actions that destabilize regional peace and security,” the task force said, adding that the Philippines would continue to assert its rights.

The United States expressed its support for the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia. U.S. Ambassador MaryKay Carlson said in a statement posted on X that China's actions were “unsafe, unlawful and aggressive” and “disrupted a legal Philippine mission, endangering lives — the latest in multiple dangerous actions.”

China is rapidly expanding its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. The tensions have led to more frequent confrontations, primarily with the Philippines, though the longtime territorial disputes also involve other claimants, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The latest incident came days after Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided near the disputed Sabina Shoal, which Beijing calls Xianbin and Manila refers to as Escoda. Two Philippine vessels were damaged in Monday’s collision, but there were no reports of injuries.

Sabina Shoal lies about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of the Philippine province of Palawan, in the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Sabina is near the Second Thomas Shoal, another flashpoint where China has hampered the resupply of Philippine forces aboard a long-grounded navy ship. Last month, China and the Philippines reached an agreement to prevent increasingly hostile confrontations at the Second Thomas Shoal.

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South China Sea: Philippines, China trade blame after second collision at Sabina Shoal

China and the Philippines traded blame on Sunday after their vessels collided again near a disputed South China Sea shoal, less than a week after a similar face-off in the area.

A Philippine ship "refused to accept control" by a Chinese coastguard vessel and "deliberately collided" with it on Sunday, China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said.

According to Gan, the ship delivered supplies to a Philippine coastguard vessel anchored at Sabina Shoal "despite repeated persuasion and warnings from China's coastguard".

"Filipino crew members who had fallen into the water" as a result of the collision were "immediately rescued on humanitarian grounds" by the Chinese coastguard, Gan added, saying Manila should take "full responsibility" for the incident.

However, the Philippines rejected this version of events, accusing the Chinese vessels instead of taking "aggressive and dangerous" action, including ramming and using water cannons on what it said was a fisheries bureau ship on a "humanitarian mission".

Manila has accused Chinese vessels of ramming and using water cannons on a fisheries bureau ship. 

According to Manila, the BRP Datu Sanday, a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ship, was targeted by eight Chinese vessels, including one from the navy.

The Chinese vessels tried to "encircle and block" the Datu Sanday, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said. It made "close perilous manoeuvres" that resulted in engine failure on the Philippine ship, forcing an early termination of the mission to supply Filipino fishermen with fuel, food and medical supplies.

"Claims suggesting that our personnel fell overboard and were subsequently rescued by the Chinese coastguard are completely unfounded," the task force said.

China expelled the same vessel in February from Scarborough Shoal, another disputed South China Sea feature known in China as Huangyan Island and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.

Sunday's was the second such confrontation in a week near the Sabina Shoal, after two Philippine coastguard ships were damaged in collisions with Chinese vessels early on Monday.

The reactions from either side were similar to those on Sunday, with Manila slamming "dangerous and illegal manoeuvres" by Chinese vessels and the Chinese coastguard saying the "deliberate" collision arose from "unprofessional and dangerous" moves from the Philippine side.

China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, the scene of increasingly tense maritime and air clashes with the Philippines in recent months over reefs, islands and other disputed features.

On Saturday, the Philippines accused Beijing of "firing flares" within 15 metres (49 feet) of one of its patrol aircraft near Scarborough Shoal, a Chinese-controlled feature also claimed by Manila.

Earlier this month, Manila said two Chinese military aircraft made a "dangerous manoeuvre" and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine Air Force plane patrolling the Scarborough Shoal on August 8.

Sabina Shoal, known as Xianbin Reef in China and Escoda Shoal in the Philippines, could be of strategic value to the Philippines as a staging post for resupplying troops stationed in a grounded warship at the Manila-controlled Second Thomas Shoal.

China also claims the Second Thomas Shoal - called Renai Jiao by Beijing and Ayungin Shoal by Manila. The area is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, known in China as the Nansha Islands, and has been the site of several confrontations between the two countries since last year.

The situation in the South China Sea has raised concerns about accidents triggering a potential military conflict that could draw in the United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines.

Tensions have been particularly inflamed since April, when Manila sent one of its most advanced coastguard vessels, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, into waters close to Sabina Shoal.

According to Manila, the ship was sent to monitor what it called China's illegal land reclamation activities at shoal - an accusation denied by Beijing.

The South China Sea is expected to be among the key topics on the table when US national security adviser Jake Sullivan meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first visit to China this week.

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Philippines says its fisheries plane was threatened by flares fired from a Chinese island base

A Philippine fisheries bureau plane was threatened by flares fired from a Chinese island base while conducting a routine patrol in the South China Sea, Philippine officials said Saturday, the latest territorial spat between Beijing and Manila over one of the world’s busiest trade routes, with confrontations spreading from the disputed waters to the airspace above.

China has been at odds with several other countries in the Asia-Pacific for years over its sweeping maritime claims, including almost all of the South China Sea.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ Cessna 208B Grand Caravan plane was flying near Subi Reef on Thursday when it spotted flares being fired from the fishing atoll, which China has transformed into a militarized island base, a Philippine government interagency task force said in a statement.

No other details were provided, including the distance of the flares from the Philippine plane and if it proceeded with its patrol to monitor for poachers in the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

The same Philippine fisheries plane was subjected to “harassment” on Aug. 19 when a Chinese air force fighter jet “engaged in irresponsible and dangerous maneuvers, deploying flares multiple times at a dangerously close distance of approximately 15 meters (yards)” near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine task force said.

"The Chinese fighter jet was not provoked, yet its actions demonstrated hazardous intent that jeopardized the safety of the personnel onboard the BFAR aircraft,” according to the task force, which includes the Department of National Defense, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine coast guard.

Chinese officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but they have previously accused Philippine ships and aircraft of encroaching into what they said was Chinese territory in the sea passage.

“We firmly reiterate our call on the government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately cease all provocative and dangerous actions that threaten the safety of Philippine vessels and aircraft engaged in legitimate and regular activities within Philippine territory and exclusive economic zone,” the Philippine task force said. "Such actions undermine regional peace and security and further erode the image of the PRC with the international community."

The United States, Manila’s longtime treaty ally, also condemned China over the firing of flares at Philippine aircraft over the two shoals. “We call on the PRC to cease provocative and dangerous actions that undermine a free and open Indo-Pacific,” U.S. Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson said in a statement posted on X.

In a separate Aug. 8 dispute over the Scarborough Shoal, Philippine officials said two Chinese jets flew dangerously close and fired a volley of flares in the path of a Philippine air force patrol plane. It was the first such aerial encounter since high-seas hostilities between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea began heating up in 2023.

Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. did not report any injuries or damage then, but condemned the Chinese actions, which he said could have had tragic consequences. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila eventually filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing.

“If the flares came into contact with our aircraft, these could have been blown into the propeller or the intake or burned our plane,” Brawner told reporters. “It was very dangerous.”

The Southern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said that a Philippine air force aircraft illegally entered the airspace above the Scarborough, which China also claims, disrupting its combat training activities at the time.

The command said it sent jets and ships to identify, track and drive away the Philippine aircraft, and warned the Philippines to “stop its infringement, provocation, distortion and hyping-up."

The United States, Australia and Canada have reported similar actions by Chinese air force aircraft in the South China Sea, where those nations have deployed forces to promote freedom of navigation and overflight.

China has bristled at military deployments by the U.S. and its allies in the disputed region, calling it a danger to regional security.

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