Philippines files diplomatic protest against China over South China Sea incident

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MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines’ foreign ministry said on Thursday it has filed a diplomatic protest against China over a Dec. 4 maritime incident in the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

Thursday’s protest is the latest in nearly 200 the Philippines has lodged against China under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr who has increasingly complained about what is says are Beijing’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea.

Chinese coastguard vessels on Wednesday fired water cannon and side-swiped a Manila fisheries bureau boat transporting supplies to Filipino fishermen operating in the Scarborough Shoal, according to Philippine officials.

Philippine coastguard vessels also faced “blocking, shadowing, and dangerous manoeuvres” from a Chinese navy vessel, actions which a senior Filipino security official on Thursday described as alarming.

“We consider that a steep escalation on the part of the People’s Republic of China,” Jonathan Malaya, National Security Council spokesperson, said in an interview with ANC News Channel.

While the Philippines aims to maintain its resupply missions in the South China Sea as civilian operations, Malaya said the country reserved the right to deploy naval vessels.

China’s Coast Guard insisted on Thursday “the responsibility lies entirely with the Philippine side”. It said in a statement it took “necessary control measures” against Philippine vessels, and its actions were “professional, standardised, legitimate and lawful”.

China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, which has angered neighbouring countries that dispute some boundaries they say cut into their exclusive economic zones.
    China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that Beijing’s expansive claims had no basis under international law.

Sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal has never been established, but the tribunal did rule that China’s blockade there violated international law that the area was a traditional fishing ground used by fishermen of many nationalities.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by John Mair and Alison Williams)