The Chinese regime is accused of launching three aggressive maritime incidents against the Philippines in the disputed waterway within a week in July.
China’s escalating aggression aims to systematically seize control of the South China Sea, prompting Washington to expand security cooperation with allies and weigh whether it should trigger its mutual defense treaty with Manila to deter the regime, experts say.
China Coast Guard vessels subjected Philippine state ships to “a series of water cannon attacks and dangerous maneuvers” in the South China Sea for a second consecutive day on July 24, per the Philippine News Agency, the country’s state-run news outlet.
The harassment occurred as a Philippine Coast Guard vessel was conducting a maritime patrol near Scarborough Shoal—a contested coral reef controlled by Beijing since a 2012 standoff that remains a major flashpoint with Manila.
All Philippine personnel were safe, but the Philippine Coast Guard “strongly condemned” the China Coast Guard’s actions, the report said.
A similar water cannon attack took place on July 23 during a Philippine fuel and food resupply mission near the shoal.
Despite the Chinese actions, the Philippine vessels successfully distributed the supplies to local fishing boats.
These clashes are far from isolated, as the Philippine Navy accused China Coast Guard personnel on July 20 of striking a sailor with a wooden baton in a violent confrontation near the South China Sea’s Second Thomas Shoal, a Manila-held reef within its asserted exclusive economic zone.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. summoned the Chinese ambassador in Manila on July 21, hours after condemning the China Coast Guard’s assault on Philippine Navy personnel during a palace press briefing.
Beijing claimed the Philippines had provoked and attacked China Coast Guard personnel at Second Thomas Shoal, and also lodged formal protests with the Philippine ambassador that same day, Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported.
The territorial dispute between the two Asian powers has grown increasingly hostile. China Daily—the Chinese regime’s mouthpiece—released a video on July 10 depicting a monkey clad in Filipino garb being blasted with water cannons, which critics denounced as a racist smear.
Although the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague struck down the expansive “nine-dash line” claims of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the South China Sea as legally baseless in 2016, Beijing has consistently dismissed the landmark ruling as invalid and non-binding.
By Jarvis Lim
