Philippine Coast Guard accuses Chinese vessels of 'dangerous' manoeuvres

Chinese warships were accused by the Philippine Coast Guard on Sunday of engaging in “dangerous” tactics while on a nine-day patrol close to a reef off the coast of Southeast Asia.

In order to “ensure the safety of Filipino fishermen in the area” and to monitor the seas surrounding Scarborough Shoal, a productive fishing ground in the South China Sea, the Philippine warship BRP Teresa Magbanua was sent out in early February.

China took the reef from the Philippines in 2012, and since then, it has been a source of tension between the two nations.

Beijing has allegedly since subsequently sent out police boats that harass Philippine vessels and keep Filipino fishermen from accessing the lagoon, where fish are more abundant, according to Manila.

During the patrol, Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels “performed dangerous and blocking manoeuvres at sea against BRP Teresa Magbanua four times, with the CCG vessels crossing the bow of the PCG vessel twice”, the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Philippine Coast Guard said its ship was also “shadowed” by four Chinese Coast Guard vessels “on more than 40 occasions”.

The coast guard also observed what it described as “four Chinese Maritime Militia vessels”.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scarborough Shoal is 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped negotiate, countries have jurisdiction over the natural resources within about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) of their shore.

The Philippine Coast guard also distributed food and groceries to a hundred Filipino fishermen in 14 boats, the statement said.

The incidents came two months after tense standoffs between China and the Philippines around disputed reefs in the South China Sea that saw a collision between vessels from the two countries and Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats.

China claims almost the entire sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.

It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims.

Chinese and Philippine officials last month agreed on the need for closer dialogue to deal with “maritime emergencies” in the waterway.