TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug 19, (AP): Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided at sea, damaging at least two boats, in an encounter early Monday near a new flashpoint in their increasingly alarming confrontations in the disputed South China Sea.
Both blamed the other for the collision near Sabina Shoal, a disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands, where overlapping claims are also made by Vietnam and Taiwan. There were no reports of injuries.
China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of deliberately crashing one of its ships into a Chinese vessel. Two Philippine coast guard ships entered waters near the shoal, ignored the Chinese coast guard's warning and intentionally collided with one of China’s boats at 3:24 a.m., a spokesperson said in a statement on the Chinese coast guard's website.
"The Philippine side is entirely responsible for the collision,” spokesman Gan Yu said. "We warn the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocation, otherwise it will bear all the consequences arising from that.”
Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the Philippine government’s National Security Council, accused the Chinese coast guard of disinformation for saying that the Philippine coast guard ships rammed its vessels.
Video and photographs, including those taken by journalists from a US TV network who were on board one of the Philippine coast guard ships, showed that the Chinese ships caused the latest collisions in the high seas, Malaya told a news forum in Manila.
The Philippines’ National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea said two of the coast guard's ships, BRP Bagacay and BRP Cape Engaño, "encountered unlawful and aggressive maneuvers” from Chinese coast guard vessels while en route to Patag and Lawak islands, which are occupied by Filipino forces, in the contested region.
"These dangerous maneuvers resulted in collisions, causing structural damage to both Philippine Coast Guard vessels,” the statement read.
The task force said the collision between BRP Cape Engaño and one of the Chinese ships created a hole on the deck of the Philippine ship with a diameter of about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters).
About 16 minutes later, the other Philippine ship, BRP Bagacay, was rammed twice on its port and starboard sides by a different Chinese vessel, leading to structural damage, according to the task force.