MANILA, Philippines — 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.
The ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the South China Sea disputes Tuesday and issued a joint communique iin which they said that “concerns were expressed by some ministers on the land reclamations, activities, serious incidents in the area, including actions that put the safety of all persons at risk, and damage to the marine environment.”
The 11-nation regional bloc’s top diplomats welcomed “significant progress” in negotiations between China and the ASEAN on a proposed nonaggression pact, called the code of conduct, which aims to prevent a major armed confrontation in the disputed waters. They said they aim to conclude the negotiations this year.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, met in Manila Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN talks and discussed a clash between Filipino and Chinese forces that happened Monday in the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Filipino navy men aboard a boat were injured after being hit by wooden poles by Chinese coast guard personnel who were in a separate boat.
Rubio called the incident “escalatory” and said the disputes “need to be managed very carefully, because obviously, a conflict — be it economic or otherwise — between the U.S. and China would have a dramatic global impact.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea as it clashes with smaller claimant countries like the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia. Taiwan and ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also been involved in often-tense territorial standoffs.
On Thursday, two Philippine fisheries vessels were harassed by Chinese coast guard ships near the Scarborough in another incident, according to the Philippine coast guard, and one was nearly hit by a water cannon.