China accuses the Philippine Coast Guard of deliberately ramming its coast guard ship in the disputed South China Sea. The other side rejects the provocation.
According to Agence France-Presse, the Philippine Coast Guard reported that two of its ships were damaged.
– Jonathan Malaya, spokesman for the country's Security Council, said the Philippines' actions to assert its rights in the South China Sea are not provocative.
According to a statement issued by the Chinese Coast Guard, a Philippine ship ignored repeated warnings and deliberately collided with a Chinese ship in an “unprofessional and dangerous” manner.
According to China, two ships illegally entered a sea area of the atoll known as Sabina Shoal. It is part of the Spratly Islands, which consists of about 600 small islands, coral reefs and underwater reefs in the South China Sea.
According to Chinese authorities, the same ship that collided with their coast guard vessel later sailed to an area near the underwater reef Second Thomas Shoal.
There has been a long series of maritime incidents between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, where the two countries have many overlapping territorial claims. Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam also have partially overlapping claims to various islands and maritime areas.
China has chosen to ignore a ruling by an arbitration tribunal that ruled in 2016 that the country's claim lacked legal basis and that China's construction of the artificial reef was illegal.
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