China says Philippines distorted facts about incident near disputed atoll
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Philippine coast guard personnel attending to injured fishermen after Chinese coast guard ships used water cannon and cut the fishermen's anchor lines near Sabina Shoal on Dec 12.
PHOTO: AFP
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BEIJING – China’s defence ministry accused the Philippines on Dec 17 of distorting the facts about an incident involving the Chinese coast guard and Filipino fishermen
Manila’s coastguard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coastguard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Dec 12, actions the Philippine defence secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane”.
The Chinese ministry defended its coastguard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained”, and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation”, according to the statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organised and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the Chinese ministry said.
“Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coastguard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defence ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Mr Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150km west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects. REUTERS
