MANILA/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Philippines and China traded accusations on Saturday over a meeting in disputed waters of the South China Sea, part of an escalating dispute over a key waterway.
Manila said two Chinese coast guard vessels “harassed” Philippine fishing boats in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, while Beijing said its vessels responded appropriately to the illegal activities.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a channel for more than $3 trillion in annual maritime trade, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration said China’s claims had no legal basis.
Beijing and Manila play cat and mouse over the uninhabited Second Thomas Shoal, in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, when the Philippines deploys resupply missions for Filipino soldiers living aboard an aging warship deliberately beached in 1999 to protect Manila’s maritime claims.
The Philippines will join defense forces from the United States, Japan and Australia on Sunday in maritime exercises it says are aimed at supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific, as China becomes increasingly assertive moreover in its maritime claims.
The disputed shoal is part of what is known internationally as the Spratly Islands. China’s coast guard said Saturday that a number of Philippine-owned vessels had “illegally” entered waters near a reef in the Nansha Islands over which Beijing has sovereignty.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela told
China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement that their operations were “professional and up to standard.” He said the Philippine vessels were government vessels using the guise of “fisheries protection” to undermine stability in the South China Sea.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; editing by Sam Holmes and William Mallard)
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