MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine army has referred to as out China to cease “unsafe actions” within the South China Sea, after a Chinese language navy ship shadowed and tried to chop off a Philippine navy vessel conducting a resupply mission late final week.
A Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Military Navy (PLAN) vessel got here as shut as 350 yards because it tried to cross in entrance of the Philippine ship close to Thitu island, Manila’s greatest and most strategically vital outpost within the South China Sea, in response to armed forces chief Romeo Brawner.
“These harmful and offensive manoeuvres by China’s PLAN not solely danger collision but additionally instantly endanger the lives of maritime personnel from each side,” Brawner mentioned in an announcement on Sunday.
The Chinese language embassy in Manila didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday.
It was the newest in a collection of makes an attempt by China to watch and block Philippine resupply missions to personnel in Manila-occupied options within the Philippines’ unique financial zone within the South China Sea.
China’s claims sovereignty to virtually all the South China Sea, via which greater than $3 trillion of commerce passes annually.
Ties between Manila and Beijing have soured since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos pursued nearer ties with Washington, together with rising U.S. entry to extra Philippine army bases.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales. Enhancing by Gerry Doyle)