CHINA – China’s coastguard says it has rescued Filipino “personnel” who fell overboard after a Philippine vessel collided with one of its ships near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippines on Sunday, however, slammed China’s claims as “completely unfounded”, saying it was a Chinese vessel that had rammed a Philippine ship. The two nations have had repeated confrontations in the waters in recent months, and on Saturday Manila accused China of recently twice firing flares at one of its patrol aircraft.

China has continued to press its claims to almost the entire South China Sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis. The China Coast Guard said Sunday the Philippine ship “ignored repeated serious warnings and deliberately approached and rammed” China’s law enforcement boat. It said the collision took place near the disputed Sabina Shoal, 140km (87 miles) west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200km (746 miles) from Hainan Island, the closest Chinese landmass.

China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said the collision occurred when a Philippine vessel refused to comply with “control measures” after attempting to deliver supplies to another vessel “illegally stationed” near Xianbin Reef in the Nansha Islands – using the Chinese names for the Sabina Shoal and the Spratly Islands also claimed by Manila. “China warns the Philippines to immediately cease its infringing actions, otherwise the Philippines will bear all consequences resulting from this situation,” Gan said.

The Philippines said its ships encountered “aggressive and dangerous maneuvers” from the Chinese side when they were on a humanitarian mission to resupply Filipino fishermen with diesel, food and medical items. The Chinese vessels “made close perilous maneuvers that resulted in ramming, blasted horns, and deployed water cannons”, leading to an early termination of the resupply operation after their ship experienced engine failure, a statement from Manila’s National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea said. (Aljazeera)…[+]