The US has briefly deployed two warships in a disputed South China Sea shoal where two Chinese ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident that raised alarms about maritime safety.
Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay overlapping claims in the contested waters.
The USS Higgins, a guided missile destroyer, and USS Cincinnati, a littoral combat ship, were shadowed by a Chinese navy ship while sailing about 30 nautical miles (55km) from the Scarborough Shoal. There were no reports of any untoward incident, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coastguard said, citing information from US officials and a Philippine surveillance flight.
The US navy has for years staged what it calls freedom-of-navigation voyages and overflights in the South China Sea to challenge China’s restrictions and its demand for entry notifications in virtually the entire stretch of the disputed waters that it claims. That has angered China and its forces have had close runs-in with US warships and aircraft on such patrols in international waters and airspace.
The deployment happened after Washington’s ambassador to Manila, MaryKay Carlson, on Tuesday condemned “the latest reckless action by China directed against a Philippine vessel” in Scarborough. The rich fishing atoll off the north-western Philippines has been the scene of increasingly tense confrontations between the Chinese and Philippine coastguard, fishing and other ships in recent years.
The Philippines, a former US colony, is Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia. The US has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines if Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
On Monday, a Chinese navy destroyer and a Chinese coastguard ship accidentally collided while trying to block and drive away a smaller Philippine coastguard ship, the BRP Suluan, about 10.5 nautical miles (19km) from Scarborough. Video footage made public by the Philippine coastguard show the Chinese coastguard ship blasting its powerful water cannon and a number of Chinese personnel standing at the bow shortly before that section was hit by the fast-turning Chinese navy ship.
Shortly after the collision, the video shows the heavily shattered bow of the Chinese coastguard ship without the Chinese personnel, who were standing on deck before the crash. The Chinese navy ship sustained deep dents and what appeared to be linear gushes on its hull.
Japan, Australia and New Zealand expressed alarm on Wednesday over the dangerous maneuvers that led to the collision in the busy waters, a key global trade route.
“Japan upholds the rule of law and opposes any actions which increase tensions. Our concern goes to the repeated actions in the South China Sea,” the Japanese ambassador to Manila, Endo Kazuya, said in a post on X.
The Australian embassy in Manila expressed concern about “the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of Chinese vessels near Scarborough Shoal involving the Philippine Coast Guard”, saying in a statement the incident “highlights the need for de-escalation, restraint and respect for international law”.
“This is a learning experience for the People’s Republic of China,” Tarriela, the Philippine coastguard commodore, told a news conference in Manila. “For so many years, we have been reminding them to stop dangerous maneuvers, to stop risky blockings, to adhere to the [anti-]collision regulations because if there is a very high chance of miscalculation, this kind of collision incident would happen.”
Tarriela spoke a few hours after a Chinese fighter jet flew as close as 500ft (150 meters) to try to drive away a Philippine coastguard plane on a surveillance flight on Wednesday over the Scarborough with invited journalists on board. The Chinese jet carried out dangerous maneuvers for about 20 minutes, including flying about 200ft above the small Philippine aircraft, Tarriela said.
