MANILA, Philippines (AP) – A Philippine fishing boat captain protested Tuesday against Chinese coast guard incursions in the disputed South China Sea, telling Chinese officials to chase him and his men from disputed shallow waters and dump their catch. He claimed to have ordered it. Under the sea.
The Jan. 12 direct confrontation, which Joely Sarrigan and his men reported to the Manila Coast Guard after returning from a voyage, tested efforts by China and the Philippines to de-escalate tensions over a potential Asian flashpoint. There is.
At talks in Shanghai on January 17, China and Manila aimed to ease tensions after a year of clashes between ships from both countries on the high seas, one of the world’s busiest oceans. They agreed to take action. The hostilities have raised concerns of a major armed conflict that could involve Manila’s longtime treaty ally, Washington.
Fishermen led by Sarrigan reported to the Philippine Coast Guard that the Chinese coast guard had chased them off the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwest coast of the Philippines and ordered them to dump their catch and shells.
The collision occurred on a coral outcrop that juts out into the sea like an islet at low tide. Sarrigan and his men boarded a dinghy from the mothership and went to collect shells and fish for food. However, five Chinese coast guard officers, three armed with iron batons, chased the boat and landed on the island, the statement said, and ordered the fishermen to leave immediately.
A Chinese official tried to seize a Filipino fisherman’s cell phone, but the fisherman pushed his hand away. Both sides recorded the confrontation with video cameras and cellphones, Sarrigan said.
Sarrigan told the Chinese coast guard officer, “This is Philippine territory. Leave,” but the Chinese man did not say a word and only used body language.
“They seemed angry. They wanted what we caught back into the sea,” Sarrigan told a group of journalists in Manila. “It’s inhumane because it was food that people shouldn’t have been deprived of.”
Sarrigan said he decided to throw some of the shells and fish into the sea and return to his mother ship, the F/V Vrail, to prevent the conflict from escalating.
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on Sarrigan’s remarks. In past disputes over Scarborough Shoal, Beijing has asserted its sovereignty and right to protect the fishing atoll from infringement.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Brigadier General Jay Tarriera said the written statements and videos submitted by Sarrigan and his subordinates were verified as accurate by the coast guard. The report will be submitted to a multi-agency government group dealing with territorial disputes for possible actions such as filing a new diplomatic protest against China.
“These actions are truly illegal and harassment of Filipino fishermen is unacceptable,” Tarriera said at a press conference.
However, the Philippine Coast Guard remains confident that the China-Philippines agreement to de-escalate tensions will “have a positive impact” and encourage a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Tarriera said.
Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels were engaged in a series of alarming and tense battles last year, primarily off Second Thomas Shoal, another hotly contested area in the South China Sea. The Philippine government has protested dangerous interdiction actions by the Chinese Coast Guard, which used water cannons and military lasers and caused minor skirmishes off Philippine-occupied shallow waters.
The United States has warned that it has an obligation to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if its military, ships and aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea. China has repeatedly warned of unspecified consequences if the United States and its allies continue to intervene in the conflict.
China took control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships, prompting Manila to take the dispute to international arbitration. A UN-backed tribunal ruled in 2016 that China’s broad claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds were invalid and that China was violating Filipinos’ rights to fish in shallow waters.
China has refused to participate in the arbitration, rejects its results, and remains defiant.
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Associated Press writers Jor Calpitan and Aaron Favila in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.