New Confrontation Brews Between China and US Ally

China tried, without success, to interfere with an environmental impact study by the Philippine fisheries bureau, Manila says, in the latest flare-up in the neighbors’ long-standing territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

“Contrary to the CCG’s [Chinese Coat Guard] unfounded assertions and claims, the marine scientific resource assessment was successfully conducted by Filipino marine scientists and personnel, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Friday.

The incident took place around Sandy Cay in the Spratly Islands, where there are overlapping claims from China, the Philippines and Vietnam. China asserts sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including the waters around Sandy Cay and other features lying within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

According to maritime law, an EEZ is an area extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from the coastline within which a country has the sole right to natural resources.

Chinese state media outlet CGTN said Thursday the country’s coast guard had “thwarted” the efforts of 34 Philippine nationals after they ignored a warning and “illegally boarded Tiexian Reef,” using Beijing’s term for Sandy Cay.

“The Philippines’ actions infringe on China’s territorial sovereignty, violate the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea,” China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu was quoted as saying.

Tarriela refuted the “false narrative being peddled once again by the China Coast Guard,” which he accused of encroaching on the cay illegally and employing “intimidation tactics.”

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs by email for comment.

China has frequently claimed to have expelled Philippine ships from contested areas, only for satellite imagery to show that the Philippine vessels in question were still in the vicinity shortly afterward.

Also on Thursday, at least 15 Chinese ships, including nine belonging to China’s paramilitary “maritime militia,” can be seen “crowding” the fisheries bureau’s Philippine coast guard escort, Ray Powell, director of the Stanford University–affiliated group SeaLight, said citing, satellite imagery from Planet Labs.

The past year has seen increasingly dramatic confrontations between China and the Philippines as the latter pushes back against China’s territorial claims.

While on a state visit to Manila earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington has a “shared concern” over China’s increasing actions in the Philippine EEZ and stressed that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty is “ironclad.”