China military drives away Philippine aircraft near Spratly Islands

BEIJING – China’s military said it warned and drove away three Philippine aircraft that “illegally intruded” into the airspace near the Spratly Islands on Feb 20.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Feb 21 that two Philippine C-208 and one N-22 aircraft “illegally ventured into the airspace around China’s Nansha islands and reefs”, also known as the Spratly Islands.

There was no immediate comment from the Philippine Embassy in Beijing on the Chinese military's statement.

The Chinese armed forces “maintained control over the entire journey, warned and expelled” the aircraft, the statement by the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command said.

The command accused the Philippine side of attempting to “peddle its illegal claims” through provocation and warned that the “clumsy manoeuvre is doomed to failure”.

It released an audio clip that it said showed a Chinese pilot warning one of the Philippine aircraft that it was “posing a security threat to Chinese islands and reefs”, and ordering it to “leave immediately to avoid misjudgments”.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a vital waterway for more than US$3 trillion (S$4 trillion) of annual ship-borne commerce, putting it at odds with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

A 2016 arbitration ruling

invalidated China’s expansive claim

, but Beijing does not recognise the decision.

On Feb 21, the Philippines said its coast guard and fisheries bureau had jointly carried out a maritime domain awareness flight over the Kalayaan Islands, the Philippine name for the Spratly Islands.

The mission was to assert the Philippines’ sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, it said.

In its statement on Feb 21, the PLA published footage it said showed the Philippine plane’s “illegal” entry into China’s airspace, though the clip showed the aircraft travelling some distance away from its Chinese counterpart.

The PLA said the plane had “used unprofessional and dangerous methods to deliberately cut across the altitude level of our helicopter as it conducted a regular air patrol, making a potential mishap extremely easy”.

More than 50 Chinese maritime militia vessels and a Chinese coast guard ship were spotted during the exercise.

It was not immediately clear if that mission, which deployed two aircraft, was the one that the Chinese military said it responded to.

The latest confrontation comes after the Philippine coast guard accused the Chinese navy of

performing dangerous flight manoeuvres

earlier this week when a PLA navy helicopter flew close to a government aircraft patrolling the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing disputed that account. REUTERS, AFP