Philippine and Chinese vessels collide in disputed South China Sea and 4 Filipino crew are injured

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea and four Filipino crew members were injured in high-seas confrontations Tuesday as Southeast Asian leaders gathered for a summit that was expected to touch on Beijing’s aggression at sea.

The Chinese coast guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine coast guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.

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Officials in China gave fewer details but the country's coast guard said that the Philippine ships were illegally intruding in the area's waters and accused one of them of ramming a Chinese vessel.

Philippine officials said that the BRP Sindangan of the Philippine coast guard had minor structural damage from a collision that happened shortly after dawn. Over an hour later, another Chinese coast guard ship first blocked then collided with a supply boat the Philippine coast guard was escorting, the officials said.

The supply boat, manned by Filipino navy personnel, was later hit by water cannon blasts from two Chinese coast guard ships. Its windshield shattered, injuring at least four Filipino crew members, according to a statement from the Philippine government task force dealing with territorial disputes.

The task force said the actions by the Chinese was "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 summoned China's deputy ambassador to convey a protest against the Chinese coast guard's actions, which it said were 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.

A small Philippine marine and navy contingent has kept watch onboard a rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has been marooned since the late 1990s in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal.

China also claims the shoal lying off the western Philippines and has surrounded the atoll with coast guard, navy and other ships to press its claims and prevent Filipino forces from delivering construction materials to fortify the Sierra Madre in a decades-long standoff.

The shoal has been the site of several tense skirmishes between Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships last year.

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.

The Chinese coast guard said a Philippine ship deliberately rammed a Chinese coast guard vessel, causing a minor scratch.

Washington strongly condemned the Chinese coast guard's actions and its ambassador in Manila, MaryKay Carlson, said the U.S. stands with the Philippines and proponents of international law. Australia and Japan separately expressed their concern over China's actions.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the latest incidents demonstrated China's "reckless disregard for the safety of Filipinos and also for international law," and that China was interfering with "lawful Philippine maritime operations."

The long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea are expected to be discussed at a summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Australian counterpart on Wednesday in Melbourne.

On Monday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in the Australian city that his administration "will do whatever it takes" to manage any threat to his country’s territory but stressed that Manila would continue "to tread the path of dialogue and diplomacy" in resolving disputes with China.

The Philippines and Vietnam plan to raise their alarm over China's increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters during the summit, a senior Southeast Asian diplomat told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Philippine security officials have accused the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships of blocking Philippine vessels and using water cannons and a military-grade laser that temporarily blinded some Filipino crew members in a series of high-seas confrontations last year.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila accused the Philippines of frequent provocative moves in the South China Sea and said China acted "in accordance with law to defend its own sovereignty, rights and interests."

The confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could involve the United States.

Chinese and Philippine officials met in Shanghai in January and agreed to take steps to lower tensions but their latest confrontation at sea underscores the difficulty of doing so.

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The U.S. has warned it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. China has warned the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute.

Brunei, Malaysia Vietnam and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the strategic waterway, a major global trade route which is also believed to be sitting atop rich undersea deposits of oil and gas.