The Philippines accused Chinese coast guards on Saturday (December 9) of repeatedly firing water cannons to “impede” three government boats near the Beijing-controlled Scarborough Reef, which claims almost all of the South China Sea.
In a video relayed by the Philippine Coast Guard, Chinese Coast Guard vessels appear firing water cannons at Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels as they resupply fishing boats.
China took control of the Philippines’ Scarborough Reef in 2012. It has since deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Filipino ships and fishermen, preventing them from reaching the lagoon, where fish are more plentiful.
Scarborough Reef lies 150 miles west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 miles from the shores of China’s Hainan province.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped negotiate, countries have jurisdiction over natural resources within about 200 nautical miles (or 370 kilometers) of their ribs.
