Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 16, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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China fired water cannons at Philippine ships near Scarborough Shoal, escalating tensions in the South China Sea. The Philippines accused China of aggressive actions.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Coast Guard said on Tuesday it fired water cannon at Philippine ships near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, and the Philippines accused Beijing of "aggressive" action that injured one person.
The confrontation comes a week after China approved plans to turn the shoal into a national nature reserve, a move that defence analysts have said would test Manila's response over the 150 sq km (58 sq mile) triangular chain of reefs and rocks.
The Philippine coast guard in turn accused its Chinese counterpart of harassing vessels it said were on a humanitarian mission to support fishermen.
Tuesday's encounter involved more than 10 Philippine ships, said Gan Yu, a spokesperson for China's Coast Guard, accusing the vessels of having "illegally invaded China's territorial waters of the Scarborough Shoal from different directions".
In particular, he faulted Philippine government vessel 3014, saying in a statement it had "disregarded solemn warnings from the Chinese side and deliberately rammed a Chinese coast guard vessel".
"The China coast guard lawfully implemented control measures against the Philippine ships," he said.
These included measures such as verbal warnings, route restrictions and water cannon spraying, Gan said.
A video released by the Chinese Coast Guard showed the bow of Philippine vessel 3014 making contact with a Chinese ship, damaging part of the deck railing as the Chinese coast guard ship fired water cannon at the Philippine vessel.
In a statement, the Philippine Coast Guard said it was engaged in a mission to resupply more than 35 Philippine fishing boats at the shoal when they encountered "aggressive actions" by nine Chinese vessels.
The PCG later said in a separate statement that two Chinese Coast Guard ships had directed water cannons at the 3014 fisheries vessel.
The "aggressive action" caused "significant damage" to the Philippine vessel and one person sustained injuries from shattered glass caused by the water cannon, it said.
SIMMERING TENSION
Simmering tension over the shoal has led to diplomatic rows in recent years, but no incidents have escalated into armed conflict there.
Each side accuses the other of provocations and trespassing in incidents featuring use of water cannon, boat-ramming and manoeuvres by China's Coast Guard that the Philippines regards as dangerously close, as well as jets shadowing Philippine aircraft there.
A spokesperson for the Philippine Maritime Council said there was "no truth" in China's statement that it had taken control measures, which it dismissed as "another case of Chinese disinformation and propaganda".
Analysts have said Beijing's plan to categorise the shoal as a nature reserve amounted to trying to take the moral high ground in the dispute over the atoll, known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.
The dispute is part of a contest over sovereignty and fishing access in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, overlapping the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Unresolved disputes have festered for years over ownership of various islands and features.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China's sweeping claims in the region were not supported by international law, a decision that Beijing rejects.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Clarence Fernandez and Timothy Heritage)
China's Coast Guard fired water cannons at Philippine ships near Scarborough Shoal, accusing them of illegally entering its territorial waters.
The Philippine Coast Guard was on a humanitarian mission to resupply over 35 fishing boats at Scarborough Shoal when they encountered aggressive actions from Chinese vessels.
The South China Sea dispute involves overlapping claims from several countries, with China asserting almost the entire area, a situation that has led to diplomatic tensions and confrontations over the years.
The Philippine Maritime Council dismissed China's claims of control measures as disinformation, asserting that there was no truth to the accusations made by the Chinese side.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that China's extensive claims in the South China Sea were not supported by international law, a decision that Beijing has rejected.
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