Sides trade blame over another collision
Manila rejects Chinese version that Filipino sailors fell into water near Sabina Shoal
China and the Philippines traded blame yesterday after their vessels collided again near a disputed South China Sea shoal, less than a week after a similar face-off in the area.
A Philippine ship “refused to accept control” by a Chinese coastguard vessel and “deliberately collided” with it yesterday, China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said.
According to Gan, the ship delivered supplies to a Philippine coastguard vessel anchored at Sabina Shoal, known as Xianbin Reef in China and Escoda Shoal in the Philippines, “despite repeated persuasion and warnings from China’s coastguard”.
“Filipino crew members who had fallen into the water” as a result of the collision were “immediately rescued on humanitarian grounds” by the Chinese coastguard, Gan added, saying Manila should take “full responsibility” for the incident.
However, the Philippines rejected this version of events, accusing the Chinese vessels instead of taking “aggressive and dangerous” action, including ramming and using water cannons on what it said was a fisheries bureau ship on a “humanitarian mission”.
According to Manila, the BRP Datu Sanday, a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ship, was targeted by eight Chinese vessels, including one from the navy.
The Chinese vessels tried to “encircle and block” the BRP Datu Sanday, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said, and made “close, perilous manoeuvres” that resulted in engine failure on the Philippine ship, forcing an early termination of the mission to supply Filipino fishermen with fuel, food and medical supplies. “Claims suggesting that our personnel fell overboard and were rescued by the Chinese coastguard are completely unfounded,” the task force said.
China expelled the same vessel in February from Scarborough Shoal, another disputed South China Sea feature known in China as Huangyan Island and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.
Yesterday’s was the second such confrontation in a week near the Sabina Shoal, after two Philippine coastguard ships were damaged in collisions with Chinese vessels last Monday.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, the scene of increasingly tense maritime and air clashes with the Philippines in recent months over reefs, islands and other disputed features.
On Saturday, the Philippines accused Beijing of “firing flares” within 15 metres of one of its patrol aircraft near Scarborough Shoal.