In this image released by Philippine Coast Guard, a Chinese Coast Guard boat sails around Sandy Cay in the South China Sea on January 24, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese Coast Guard ships and a Chinese navy helicopter harassed a group of Philippine fisheries vessels conducting a scientific survey in a hotly disputed area of the South China Sea, forcing them to cancel the operation, the Philippine Coast Guard said Saturday (January 25, 2025).

The Chinese Coast Guard and navy’s harassment of the Philippine vessels took place Friday near Sandy Cay, three small uninhabited sandbars planked by an artificial island base of Chinese forces and a Philippines-occupied island in the Spratlys archipelago, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard ships approached two larger vessels, which manoeuvred to avoid a collision, and a Chinese navy helicopter flew low over two smaller boats deployed by the ships, forcing the survey to be called off.

Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard show a Chinese Coast Guard ship sailing very close to a ship officials identified as one of the Philippine vessels. Another video shows a Chinese military helicopter hovering low over the rough seas near a vessel flying a Philippine flag.

ALSO READ: Philippines says China ‘biggest disruptor’ of peace in Southeast Asia

There was no immediate response from Chinese officials, but China has repeatedly asserted sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and accused rival claimant states, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia of encroachment. China has demarcated its territorial claims with a 10 dashed-line printed in maps but has not provided the exact coordinates.

Test for Trump administration

The latest flare-out of the long-simmering territorial disputes in one of the world’s busiest trade and security passageways could test President Donald Trump’s commitment to maintain America’s role as a counterweight to China, which has increasingly carried out assertive actions in the disputed waters.

His predecessor, Joe Biden, strengthened an arc of security alliances in Asia while in office in a bid to curb China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea, East China Sea and around Taiwan, a self-governed island which Beijing has vowed to take by force if necessary.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a telephone call on Wednesday with his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, discussed issues of mutual concern, including “the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and destabilizing actions in the South China Sea,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Mr. Rubio “conveyed that the PRC’s behaviour undermines regional peace and stability and is inconsistent with international law,” Bruce said in a readout of the call.

Mr. Rubio “underscored the United States’ ironclad commitments to the Philippines under our Mutual Defense Treaty,” Bruce said.

Mr. Biden and his administration had repeatedly warned China that the U.S. is obligated to help defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under armed attack including in the South China Sea. China has warned the U.S. to stay away from what it says is a purely Asian dispute.

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.

Members of the media take footage of a Chinese Coast Guard vessel blocking a Philippine Coast Guard vessel on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The Philippines on April 27 denied a Chinese claim that the two countries had reached an agreement over an escalating maritime dispute in the South China Sea, calling the claim propaganda.

A spokesperson at China’s embassy in Manila said on April 18 that the two had agreed early this year to a “new model” in managing tensions at the Second Thomas Shoal, without elaborating.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on April 27 his department was “not aware of, nor is it a party to, any internal agreement with China” since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022. Defence department officials have not spoken to any Chinese officials since last year, Mr. Teodoro said in a statement.

China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Teodoro’s comments outside office hours.

Beijing and Manila have repeatedly clashed in recent months at the submerged reef, which Philippines says is in its exclusive economic zone but which China also claims.

The Philippines had accused China of blocking manoeuvres and firing water cannons at its vessels to disrupt supply missions to Filipino soldiers stationed in a naval ship which Manila deliberately grounded in 1999 to bolster its maritime claims.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its claims overlap with those of the Philippines and four other nations. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing rejects.

Mr. Teodoro called China’s claims of a bilateral agreement “part of the Chinese propaganda”, adding that the Philippines would never enter into any agreement that would compromise its claims in the waterway.

“The narrative that unnamed or unidentified Chinese officials are propagating is another crude attempt to advance a falsehood,” he said.

President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has ordered his government to strengthen its coordination on maritime security to confront “a range of serious challenges” to territorial integrity and peace, as a dispute with China escalates.

The order, signed on Monday and made public on March 31, does not mention China but follows a series of bilateral maritime confrontations and mutual accusations over a disputed area of the South China Sea.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on March 31.

Editorial |Troubled waters: On the tensions between China and the Philippines  

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce. China’s claims overlap those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s claims had no legal basis.

The latest flare-up occurred last weekend, when China used water cannon to disrupt a Philippine resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal for soldiers guarding a warship intentionally grounded on a reef 25 years ago.

“Despite efforts to promote stability and security in our maritime domain, the Philippines continues to confront a range of serious challenges that threaten territorial integrity, but also the peaceful existence of Filipinos,” Mr. Marcos said in the order.

The President vowed on Thursday to implement countermeasures against “illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous attacks” by China’s coastguard.

His order expands and reorganises the government’s maritime council, adding the national security adviser, solicitor general, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency chief and the South China Sea task force.

The order appears to expand the role of the military by naming the Armed Forces of the Philippines, not just the navy, among the agencies supporting the council.

The renamed National Maritime Council will be the central body to formulate strategies to ensure a “unified, coordinated and effective” framework for the Philippines’ maritime security and domain awareness.

Mr. Marcos increased the number of agencies supporting the council to 13 from nine, including the space agency and the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and the Law of the Sea.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (left) shakes hands with Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo after holding a joint press conference at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila on March 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India supports the Philippines’ sovereignty, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Manila, in comments that sparked a response from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called on “third countries” not to “interfere”.

Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to Manila on Tuesday, where he met Philippines President Bongbong Marcos and Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo, is part of a three-nation five-day tour to Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.

“I take this opportunity to firmly reiterate India’s support to the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty,” said Mr. Jaishankar, reading his opening statement to the media during a joint press conference after talks with Mr. Manalo. He said that the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) was the “the constitution of the seas” and all parties “must adhere to it in its entirety, both in letter and in spirit”, in comments seen as aimed at China, whose Navy and Coast Guard have been frequently accused of violating sovereign waters of other countries and claiming islands. China’s actions have drawn protest from many Asian neighbours, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia in the South China Sea (SCS) region.

The External Affairs Minister also visited the Indian Coast Guard pollution-control ship ICGS Samudra Paheredar on Tuesday, that is on a port call in Manila until Thursday, and hailed maritime cooperation between the two countries. In a speech he gave on board the Indian ship docked at Manila’s South Harbour, Mr. Jaishankar said that the ship’s visit was “significant”, because it highlighted “shared challenges” that India and Philippines face on oceanic pollution, illegal fishing and protecting the environment in the region. He also underlined the need for “like-minded countries” in the Indo-Pacific region to enhance cooperation.

Mr. Jaishankar’s Manila visit came as tensions between the Philippines and Chinese navies rose to new levels over aggressive maritime moves by the Chinese Coast Guard against a Filipino ship meant to carry supplies to their troops aboard the BRP Sierra Madre ship in the Spratly Islands. On Monday, the Philippines Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned the Chinese envoy to protest the actions, including the Chinese Coast Guard ship’s physical blocking of the Philippines ship, firing it with a water cannon that injured three of its soldiers. The Chinese Coast Guard, meanwhile claimed that it was legitimately guarding “Chinese waters” from the “foreign vessel”.

Reacting sharply to Mr. Jaishankar’s comments in Manila within hours, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on India and the Philippines to “respect China’s territorial sovereignty”.

“Maritime disputes are issues between countries concerned. Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said. “We urge relevant parties to squarely face the facts and truth on the South China Sea issue, and respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and the efforts of regional countries to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable,” he added.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for a response to the Chinese MFA’s remarks. Apart from the current controversy, Beijing is understood to be watching India’s sale of Brahmos missiles to the Philippines very closely, deliveries for which are expected to be begin shortly.

During talks with Mr. Manalo, Mr. Jaishankar said he discussed other areas of growing cooperation between the two countries including trade, capacity-building in digital infrastructure, regional issues including the Indo-Pacific, Myanmar, the Ukraine war and cooperation in common fora including the UN and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). He said he had briefed the Philippines Minister on Indian naval deployment in the Red Sea to counter threats from Houthi militia and piracy. He also highlighted rescue operations, including those where Indian naval personnel have helped Philippines nationals on board ships in distress including the MV True Confidence and MV Lila Norfolk.