MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Chinese coast guard ships fired powerful water cannons at two Philippine fisheries vessels Friday in the South China Sea, the third confrontation in the disputed waters this week as Manila hosted annual ministerial meetings at which Asian and Western governments renewed their alarm over China’s maritime aggression.The latest high seas faceoff happened near the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine coast guard said, adding that a Chinese coast guard ship also approached a Philippine government fisheries vessel, the BRP Datux Paduhinog, at a distance of seven meters (23 feet) in what it called a “reckless” maneuver that created a serious risk of collision.The Chinese coast guard reiterated China’s sovereign control over the fishing atoll and said it took control measures against several Philippines vessels illegally operating in the waters. China claims virtually the entire sea passage, a key global trade route, despite a 2016 arbitration ruling based on the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims.
The Philippine coast guard strongly condemned “the dangerous and unprofessional actions of the China coast guard,” saying the shoal “is an integral part of the Philippine territory and its surrounding waters form part of the country’s territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.”The decades-long territorial standoffs were high in the agenda of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Asian and Western counterparts in three days of closed-door talks that started Tuesday in Manila. The new fighting in the Middle East and the Ukraine conflict also came under the spotlight in the talks.
