Ships Collide as China Confronts US Ally

A Philippine convoy weathered a collision and water cannons Tuesday morning as China sought to prevent fresh supplies and troops from reaching a remote Philippine outpost in the South China Sea.

Manila said a coast guard escort vessel on the supply mission sustained minor damage in the collision, with Chinese water cannons allegedly damaging one of the two commissioned supply boats and injuring several crew members.

The supply mission's destination—the Spratly Islands' Second Thomas Shoal —has over the past year become one of the most hotly disputed points of contention in a territorial feud between China and the Philippines, which could trigger the latter's Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States and a dangerous escalation.

Chinese forces Tuesday morning "harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers in another attempt to illegally impede or obstruct a routine resupply and rotation mission to BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal (Manila's term for Second Thomas Shoal)," according to a statement from a Philippine military task force.

The Sierra Madre is a rusting warship the Philippines ran aground at Second Thomas Shoal to stake its claim there. The vessel, whose presence China maintains is illegal, houses a contingent of Philippine marines.

The statement said a collision between a blockading Chinese coast guard ship and a Philippine vessel resulted in "superficial structural damage" to the hull of the latter.

Footage released by the Philippine coast guard shows the collision between the Chinese ship and Parola-class patrol ship the BRP Sindangan and the moments leading up to it, including the Philippine crew scrambling to deploy fenders over the Sindangan 's starboard side to lessen the impact.

Though it was not the first collision to occur between ships of the countries' maritime forces, it is the first reported between large coast guard vessels since tensions began ticking upward last year.

An apparent second collision features in a video released by the Chinese coast guard alleging the smaller Philippine vessel's crew were at fault for the incident.

This same supply boat was targeted by water cannons from flanking Chinese coast guard ships, which the Philippine task force said "shattered" its windshield and injured at least four of its crew. This boat was forced to return to port under escort, while the remaining supply boat managed to evade Chinese ships and reach the Sierra Madre .

"The Philippines reneged on its commitment and deliberately sent two coast guard vessels and two supply vessels to intrude into the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Reef (Beijing's term for the shoal)... and intended to deliver materials to the illegally 'grounded' warship," the China Coast Guard wrote in its account of the morning's events, without elaborating on this alleged commitment.

China's coast guard faulted the Philippine side for the collision, citing an "unprofessional and hazardous approach," and accused Manila of "extortion tactics," sensationalism, and of "sabotaging the peace and stability of the South China Sea."

The statement "rehashes the same old fakes," Collin Koh, senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, wrote on X (formerly Twitter ).

"[The] first is to accuse Manila of 'breaking its promise,'" he said. "I don't think [the Philippines] promised to stop those missions."

The Chinese embassy in Manila had not responded to multiple written requests for comment by publication time.

"We strongly condemn the PRC's (People's Republic of China) dangerous maneuvers at Ayungin/Second Thomas Shoal, which endangered lives, resulted in injuries, and damaged Philippine Coast Guard vessels in the Philippine EEZ (exclusive economic zone)," U.S. envoy to the Philippines Mary Kay Clarkson wrote on X.

"The U.S. stands with the Philippines and proponents of international law in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," she added.

Tuesday's standoff is a dramatic reversal from last month's supply run to Second Thomas Shoal that went unchallenged by China.

China claims sovereignty over most of the resource-rich South China Sea, including areas lying with the EEZs of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

In an address last week before the Australian parliament, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed never to yield " even one square inch " of the Philippines' territory, in a veiled reference to the country's ongoing feud with China.

"It is my sworn duty, and the sworn duty of the entire government of the Republic of the Philippines to defend the constitution of the Philippines, and the first article of the constitution is the definition of our territorial waters," Marcos said when asked about his comments on Australian Broadcasting Corporation program 7.30 .