MANILA — The Chinese coast guard boarded Philippine navy vessels and damaged and confiscated equipment in a confrontation that left a sailor severely injured this week, the Philippines announced Wednesday, in a stark escalation of tensions over the highly contested South China Sea.
According to Philippine officials, Chinese vessels on Monday rammed Philippine ships to stop them from resupplying a warship, the Sierra Madre, beached on a half-submerged reef known as the Second Thomas Shoal, which has become a central flash point in the dispute between the two countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after speaking with his Philippine counterpart on Wednesday, warned that China’s “actions undermine regional peace and stability” and reiterated the United States’ “ironclad commitments” to the Philippines, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The United States shares a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, and Biden administration officials have stressed in recent months that an armed attack on Philippine military vessels or personnel in the South China Sea would trigger a U.S. military response. The U.S. military is watching the situation at Second Thomas Shoal “very closely,” Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said Wednesday.
GET CAUGHT UP
Stories to keep you informed
“We’ve continued to offer assistance to the Philippines, but as of yet there’s not been any request for support,” she said. “The U.S. military is providing the Philippines “with intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, at their request,” she added.
Videos shared by the Philippine military show Chinese coast guard using pickaxes and knives to puncture Philippine rubber dinghies that were attempting to reach the Sierra Madre, and confiscating equipment aboard the navy vessels, including the mobile phones of sailors. The Philippines also said the Chinese blared loud sirens and deployed tear gas to create “chaos” during the confrontation.
A Philippine sailor lost a finger when a Chinese dinghy collided with a Philippine dinghy at high speed, hitting his hand, which was caught between the two vessels, officials said.
At least seven other Philippine sailors were also injured. Chinese ships later towed away two Philippine rubber dinghies after emptying them of their contents.
“This is piracy,” Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the Philippine armed forces’ chief of staff, said in a news conference held in Palawan, an island province 120 miles from the reef. “They boarded our boats illegally, they took our equipment. They are like pirates with the actions they carried out.” Brawner added that the Philippine navy personnel “fought back” but were significantly outnumbered by the Chinese and chose not to employ weapons.
“Our objective is that while we want to bring supplies to our troops following international laws, our objective is also to prevent war. We do not want a war,” he said.
At a news briefing Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian blamed the Philippines for the confrontation and claimed that the Philippine vessels were carrying construction materials and weapons as part of a long-term occupation of the Second Thomas Shoal,