Eight Chinese ships, seeming to ignore a US military surveillance plane circling around them, pursue Philippine supply boats, before blocking them briefly, in the South China Sea, a hotly contested area.
This high-risk game of cat and mouse took place on Tuesday.
The Chinese coast guard had however assured that the Philippine boats would be authorized “in a spirit of humanism” to deliver provisions to a small garrison installed on the disputed reef of Second Thomas.
But a Chinese radio operator later warned that the two Philippine Coast Guard vessels escorting the supply boats must leave the scene or “assume full responsibility for all consequences”.
“In the spirit of humanity, we will only allow the vessel carrying food and other essentials and rotating personnel, but without building materials, to visit the illegally stranded vessel” on the reef, he said.
A team of AFP journalists aboard the BRP Cabra, one of the two Philippine coastguards, witnessed all the Chinese maneuvers. One of the Chinese ships approached within a few meters of the BRP Cabra.
Eventually, the two supply boats reached the reef and delivered food to the military stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre, a WWII-era ship that the Philippines ran aground in 1999 on Second Thomas Reef.
Manila wanted to assert its claims of sovereignty there against Beijing after the occupation of the nearby Mischief Reef by China in the mid-1990s.
Filipino troops stationed on this rusty old wreck depend on outside supplies to survive on Second Thomas, located about 200 km from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than a thousand km from the nearest Chinese lands, the Hainan Island.
AFP was one of three media outlets to have the relatively rare opportunity to join this resupply mission, less than three weeks after Chinese coast guard vessels used water cannons against an operation similar.
This incident, which occurred on August 5, had reignited tensions between Beijing and Manila. One of the two supply boats was unable to deliver its precious cargo to the Filipino soldiers.
China had drawn criticism from several countries but Beijing had called its behavior “professional” and accused Manila of “illegal delivery of construction materials”.
Ignoring a 2016 international judgment against it, Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a strategic region through which billions of dollars in trade pass each year, despite rival claims from the Philippines, the Vietnam or Malaysia.
Since coming to power in June 2022, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has for his part insisted that he will not let China trample on his country’s rights at sea, and has moved closer to the United States.
On Wednesday, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman for the Western Philippine Sea Jay Tarriela returned to the previous day’s incident, telling reporters that Chinese vessels had performed “many dangerous maneuvers” to harass Philippine boats.
He rejected the Chinese argument invoking “humanitarian considerations” to authorize the supplies.
Before launching: “We don’t need anyone’s permission”.
23/08/2023 17:20:22 – A BORD DU BRP CABRA (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
