The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) accused the Chinese navy of “aggressive and escalatory actions,” when a navy helicopter flew close to a Philippine aircraft patrolling a contested shoal in the South China Sea.
In a statement, PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said an aircraft from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was conducting “a maritime domain awareness flight” over the Scarborough Shoal, a triangular series of reefs inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
It said that around 8:39 a.m., a People’s Liberation Army Navy helicopter, “performed dangerous flight maneuvers” in the vicinity of the BFAR aircraft, moving to within three meters of the aircraft. A video released by the PCG shows the Chinese chopper swooping momentarily toward the upper port side of the BFAR aircraft, before flying away.
“This reckless action posed a serious risk to the safety of the pilots and passengers during the MDA flight,” the PCG statement added. “The PCG and BFAR remain committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China.”
Scarborough Shoal, a triangular barrier of reefs about 120 nautical miles west of Luzon, the northernmost Philippine island, has been a recent focus of tensions between Manila and Beijing. Despite lying within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, the feature has been under Chinese control since a protracted stand-off between the two countries in 2012.
Much of this has focused on Chinese efforts to prevent Filipino fishermen from entering the shoal’s internal lagoon. This has resulted in a series of confrontations in which China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels have rammed PCG and BFAR ships, and doused them with high-pressure water cannons.
As with many of the recent incidents in the South China Sea, China soon responded to the PCG statement with one of its own. In this statement, the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said that the Philippine aircraft had “illegally intruded” into China’s airspace, and accused the Philippines of “spreading false narratives” about the South China Sea, Reuters reported. It added that this “severely violated” China’s sovereignty.
Frictions around Scarborough Shoal have increased markedly since July of last year, when Beijing and Manila reached an “understanding” regarding the Philippines’ resupply of its forces on Second Thomas Shoal, a contested feature in the Spratly Islands. Chinese attempts to prevent the resupply of the Filipino troops aboard the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded warship that functions as its outpost at Second Thomas Shoal, were previously the major focus of tensions in the South China Sea.
Since then, China’s attention has shifted to other parts of the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal. Last month, the Philippines lodged a formal protest with China and requested that it desist from “escalatory actions” at the Scarborough Shoal, after detecting two coast Chinese guard vessels in and around the shoal on January 5 and January 10. Among these was a ship that the Philippine government and press have dubbed “the monster” – the 165-meter-long ship 5901, the largest vessel in the CCG’s fleet.