Philippines says China Coast Guard fired water cannon; Beijing calls Manila’s accusations “bogus”

This handout taken and released on December 4, 2024 by the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) shows a China Coast Guard ship (R) deploying water cannon at the Phillipine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel BRP Datu Pagbuaya (L) near Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
| Photo Credit: AFP

China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of making “bogus accusations” after Manila said it had fired water cannon and “sideswiped” a Philippine government vessel in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday.

The Philippine vessel “turned at a great angle and reversed, deliberately colliding” with a Chinese ship, a statement read, adding that Manila had “later deliberately distorted the truth and made bogus accusations in an attempt to mislead international understanding”.

The Philippines said the China Coast Guard fired water cannon and “sideswiped” a government vessel Wednesday during a maritime patrol near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, after Beijing said it had “exercised control” over the ship.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries — including the Philippines — and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Vessels from the two sides have clashed frequently in the past year, resulting in injuries and damages.

Tensions flared again on Wednesday, with Manila releasing a video appearing to show a Chinese coast guard hitting the right side of fisheries department vessel BRP Datu Pagbuaya, with the crew shouting, “Collision! Collision!”.

The Chinese ship “fired a water cannon… aiming directly at the vessel’s navigational antennas”, the Philippine coast guard and fisheries ministry said in a joint statement.

The Chinese vessel then “intentionally sideswiped” the ship before launching a second water cannon attack, the statement said.

China’s coast guard said in a statement that Philippine ships “came dangerously close” and that its actions had been “in accordance with the law”, but gave no further details about the manoeuvres it used during the incident.

“On December 4, Philippine Coast Guard ships… attempted to intrude into China’s territorial waters around Huangyan Island,” coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.

The shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks — has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.

Since then, Beijing has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishermen from accessing a fish-rich lagoon there.

The shoal lies 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.