Philippines: The President of the Philippines, Mr. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said that the country’s secretary of foreign affairs has summoned the Chinese Ambassador, Mr. Huang Xilian. This comes after Chinese coastguards blocked and used water cannon on Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea.
“Our secretary of foreign affairs summoned Ambassador Huang today and gave him a note verbale, including pictures, video, about what happened, and we are awaiting their reply,” Mr. Marcos stated.
The Philippines accused China’s coastguard on 5th August 2023, of using water cannon to block its vessels carrying food, water, fuel, and other supplies for its military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly islands.
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, condemned the actions as illegal, “excessive,” and “dangerous.”
“For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal. We are committed to Ayungin Shoal,” National Security Council spokesman Mr. Jonathan Malaya told reporters.
The Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan island.
Meanwhile, Beijing claims ownership over almost all of the South China Sea, an important waterway through which trillions of dollars in trade flow each year. Despite an international court ruling in 2016 that declared its claim lacking legal basis, China has disregarded the ruling.
China said it had taken “necessary controls” against Philippine boats that had “illegally” entered its waters.
“The position of China, of course, is they say, ‘this is ours, so we are defending it, and we, for our part, are saying, ‘no, we own it, so we are defending it’. So that becomes a grey area that we are discussing,” the Philippine president remarked.
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