The Associated Press is reporting that an international incident occurred in the historically disputed South China Sea resulting in injury to four Filipino members on Tuesday.
This comes at a time when leaders in Southeast Asia are gathering at an Asian summit where concerns are being raised about China's aggression on the high seas.
Chinese Coast Guard ships, accompanied by support vessels, are alleged to have blocked the Philippine Coast Guard and its supply vessels of the Second Thomas Shoal, executing dangerous maneuvers that reportedly caused two minor collisions between the ships, according to Phillippine officials.
The Phillippine ship, BRP Shindangan suffered, minor structural damage in the incident, which is said to have taken place shortly after dawn.
The Chinese reportedly continued with dangerous maneuvers an hour after the first collision as another Chinese Coast Guard ship collided with a supply being supported by the Philippine Coast Guard.
The same supply ship was reportedly struck by water cannons from two Chinese Coast Guard ships, resulting in a shattered windshield and injury to four Filipino crew members.
The actions are said by the Philippines to be another attempt to illegally impede or obstruct a routine resupply mission. The task force said the actions by the Chinese were "another attempt to illegally impede or obstruct a routine resupply and rotation mission."
"China's latest unprovoked acts of coercion and dangerous maneuvers" against Philippine ships en route to deliver supplies and fresh troops to the Philippine-occupied shoal "put the lives of our people at risk and caused actual injury to Filipinos," it said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila reached out to the Chinese deputy ambassador to protest against the Chinese coast guard's actions, which it deemed unacceptable.
"The Philippines demands that Chinese vessels leave the vicinity of Ayungin shoal immediately," the department said in a statement, using the Philippine name for the contested shoal.
What's At Stake?
The Philippines has maintained a contingent of marines and naval personnel aboard the marooned BRP Sierra Madre off the disputed shoal since the 1990s.
China claimed the shoal off the western Philippines as its territory and surrounded the atoll with coast guard and navy vessels to enforce its claims and prevent the Philippines from resupplying their troops and fortifying their position.
The Chinese Coast Guard said in a statement that "it took control measures in accordance with the law against Philippine ships that illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Reef," the name Beijing uses for Second Thomas Shoal.
A Chinese official blamed the Philippines, who he said deliberately rammed a Chinese coast guard ship. The United States has said it stands with the Philippines in accordance with international law.
Second Thomas Shoal is also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei as it is a major global trade route and is believed to be sitting on a fortune in undersea oil and gas deposits.
