There were several incidents where Chinese and Philippine ships collided over the weekend in the South China Sea worsening their differences on the maritime ownership issue. One of the Philippine’s sea task force vessels reported being attacked by a water cannon while carrying out a supply mission to Second Thomas Shoal, adding that a Filipino boat was rammed by a Chinese vessel.
On its part, the Chinese Coast Guard retorted saying that a Philippine boat had refused to stop despite warnings and intentionally hit its vessel during law enforcement operations putting blame solely on the Philippines.
Through the spokesman of the Chinese coast guard, Gan Yu, China has warned the Philippines to stop violating its territories, adding that China will be stern in defending the country’s sovereignty and maritime interests.
The new Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has challenged China’s sweeping claim over the South China sea. The Chinese vessels shadowed a group of about 200 Filipino civilians for delivering supplies on the way to fishing settlements located in the disputed territorial waters over the weekend.
A group of Philippine, youth leaders, fisherman and journalist were forced to stop short of their trip over weekend in delivering some supplies to fishing communities in the disputed areas, as they were haunted with more than two hundred chinese vessels – even the navy boats, too.
The decision to go back to the Palawan province was taken in case of any doubt because of the continuous trailing Chinese vessels. This event happened after the US condemned China for firing water cannon against Filipinos who passed by Scarborough Shoal.
To this end, the US will bolster its relations with Indo-Pacific allies to challenge Beijing’s wide claims of the South China Sea. In order to boost its defense partnership with the US, Manila allows more US soldiers into its territory, and conducts joint patrolling maneuvers on contested waters.
(“This story remains unedited by News360Express staff and is published from a syndicated feed.”)
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