China says it is committed to “resolute measures” after it clashed with a Philippine resupply mission for the second time this month in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands archipelago.
China’s diplomatic mission in Manila said Monday it had lodged an official protest with its host government over the “illegal trespassing” at Second Thomas Shoal, a reef lying within the Philippines’ internationally recognized exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and over 600 miles from Chinese shores.
Early Saturday morning, Chinese coast guard and paramilitary ships homed in on a routine supply boat and its two Philippine Coast Guard escorts as they carried supplies and fresh troops to a grounded warship-turned-military outpost at the disputed reef.
As during the previous supply run on March 5, footage shows Chinese forces appearing to unsafely steer into the paths of their Philippine counterparts. The China Coast Guard also unleashed intense water cannon barrages on the supply boat Unaizah May 4, which Manila said crippled it and resulted in several injuries.
The embassy said that just 18 days after the previous flare up, the Philippine government had ignored “China‘s strong opposition (to the mission) communicated clearly to the Philippine side until the eleventh hour.”
It accused the Philippines of secretly ferrying construction supplies meant to reinforce the rusting Second Thomas Shoal warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, in order to extend the Southeast Asian country’s presence there.
