MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine military said on Saturday it strongly condemned “dangerous and provocative actions” by the Chinese air force on disputed shoals in the South China Sea.
This is the first time the Philippines has complained about dangerous behavior by Chinese aircraft (rather than Navy or Coast Guard vessels) since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022.
The military said in a statement that on Thursday morning, two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force aircraft performed dangerous maneuvers in the path of an NC-212i Philippine Air Force propeller aircraft conducting a routine maritime patrol over Scarborough Shoal and headed towards it. Throw flares.
Armed Forces of the Philippines Commander Romeo Brauner said the aircraft “endangered the lives of our personnel who were conducting recent maritime security operations in Philippine waters,” adding that the Chinese aircraft interfered with legitimate flight operations and violated international aviation security. Law.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Philippine fishermen frequent Scarborough Shoal, one of two hotspots in the country’s long-running maritime rivalry with China. Beijing organized a combat patrol on Wednesday near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc, and which China occupied in 2012 and calls the island Scarborough Shoal.
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a thoroughfare for more than $3 trillion in annual shipping trade, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
China rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that said Beijing’s broad claims had no basis in international law.
In May, the Philippines accused Chinese fishermen of carrying out cyanide fishing in Scarborough, harvesting giant clams and other protected marine life, destroying Scarborough’s ecological environment and causing scars to the coral reefs, but China denied this. .
