In a statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States stands with the Philippines and condemns the “dangerous and escalatory actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the vicinity of Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea” on Aug. 31.
“A China Coast Guard vessel deliberately collided three times with a Philippine Coast Guard vessel exercising its freedom of navigation in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, causing damage to the vessel and jeopardizing the safety of the crew onboard,” he said.
Miller also condemned “a series of dangerous and escalatory actions” by China throughout August, saying the communist regime’s “unlawful claims of ‘territorial sovereignty’ over ocean areas where no land territory exists, and its increasingly aggressive actions to enforce them, threaten the freedoms of navigation and overflight of all nations.”
The latest skirmish between the Chinese regime and the Philippines occurred near the Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as the Xianbin Jiao (Xianbin Reef) and the Filipinos call the Escoda Shoal.
It’s part of the disputed Spratly Islands over which both Beijing and Manila claim sovereignty.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), up to 200 nautical miles off the coast of a nation counts as its exclusive economic zone, and the Sabina Shoal—which is much closer to the Philippines than it is to China—falls within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone.
A 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in The Hague also found that the Chinese regime had no legal basis for its territorial claims over the South China Sea. Beijing said the court doesn’t have the power to rule on territorial disputes and passed a domestic law it claims allows its coast guard to detain foreigners it views as trespassers while ramping up aggression in the area.
Beijing and Manila blamed each other on Saturday for the collisions of Chinese Coast Guard vessel 5205 and the Philippines’s BRP Teresa Magbanua.
Manila said the Chinese Coast Guard vessel “deliberately rammed and collided with the BRP Teresa Magbanua three times, despite no provocation from the Philippine Coast Guard,” and collaborated its assertion with three videos on X that appear to show moments before and during each collision.
The Chinese Cost Guard accused the Philippine vessel of deliberately running into the Chinese vessel, and posted a clip on Chinese social media site Weibo that appears to show the two vessels making contact with each other after a collision.
It’s the fourth sea incident and the third collision incident in a month over which Beijing and Manila publicly traded accusations. Including air incidents makes it the seventh skirmish.
After the collisions, the Chinese regime’s state-owned Global Times cited Chinese experts saying the Philippines is “not concerned about the safety of its ships, aircraft, and personnel at Xianbin Jiao, it only cares about whether its actions in [South] China Sea can win the ‘support’ of certain external countries.”
Reacting to the comment on X, Commodore Jay Tarriela, the spokesperson for the Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea shot back, saying the Chinese regime “is not concerned for the safety of its ships, aircraft, and personnel in Escoda Shoal, focusing instead on whether its illegal, inhumane, and barbaric actions in the South China Sea can gain the ‘support’ of its domestic audience, whom they mislead with fake news and misinformation.”
U.S. Ambassador to the Phillippines MaryKay Carlson and ambassadors of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan voiced their concerns on X over Beijing’s escalations in the South China Sea.
Carlson said the United States condemns “the multiple dangerous violations of international law by the PRC,” including the incident on Saturday, adding, “We stand with the Philippines in upholding international law.”
British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said the UK is “concerned about reports of yet more dangerous actions by a Chinese vessel near Sabina Shoal” and that the country “calls once again for respect for international law, including UNCLOS, and adherence to the 2016 Arbitral Award which is legally binding on the parties.”
Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu said Australia “shares the Philippines’ concerns about China’s destabilising behaviour at Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea.
“Repeatedly ramming vessels is unacceptable & dangerous. All countries must comply with international law. The 2016 Arbitral Award is binding on its parties.”
The New Zealand Embassy in Manila published a statement saying the latest incident “is profoundly troubling and fits a recent pattern of dangerous and destabilising actions in the region.”
Japanese Ambassador Endo Kazuya said that Japan, as a stakeholder of the South China Sea, is “seriously concerned over the repeated incidents.”
Japan “opposes any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion [and] stands together with [the Philippines] by upholding rule of law at sea,” Kazuya added.
Also on Saturday, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it lodged “strong concern and protest” after a Chinese naval survey vessel navigated in Japan’s territorial waters in the southwest of Kuchinoerabu island less than a week after a Chinese military plane intruded on Japanese airspace.
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