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By Micah McCartney
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The Philippine coast guard has released footage showing one of its patrol planes exchanging radio challenges with a Chinese warship on Tuesday in contested waters of the South China Sea.
Why It Matters
The Philippines is locked in a territorial dispute with China, which claims sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea—including features lying within the Southeast Asian country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
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The Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has pushed back since 2023, and dramatic confrontations between the two neighbors’ maritime forces have left several Filipino crew members injured and raised concerns that a miscalculation could trigger the country’s Mutual Defense Treaty with the U.S.
Newsweek reached out to China’s Ministry of National Defense with an emailed request for comment outside office hours.
What To Know
The plane carried out a routine maritime domain awareness patrol near Scarborough Shoal, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in an X post. The uninhabited atoll is a traditional fishing ground and one of the most hotly contested areas in the South China Sea. During the patrol, the aircraft monitored two Chinese coast guard cutters and another five vessels believed to be part of China’s so-called Maritime Militia, he said.
The plane also spotted two People’s Liberation Army Navy warships—the guided‑missile frigate the Dali and another vessel that was not named. Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, later identified the second ship as a Type‑901 fleet replenishment vessel.
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Video from the flight captures the Dali and the Philippine aircraft exchanging radio challenges. “The Philippine coast guard aircrew responded professionally, asserting that the MDA flight was fully compliant with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 2016 Arbitral Award, and the Philippine Maritime Zones Act,” Tarriela wrote.
“This aerial patrol underscores the PCG’s resolve to protect Filipino fishermen, preserve our marine resources, and highlight the illegal presence of Chinese maritime forces to prevent its normalization — fully aligned with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s pledge to yield not a single inch of our territory to any foreign power.”
While naval ships such as the Dali are allowed innocent passage through another state’s EEZ, only claimant countries have the right to enforce laws or exploit natural resources in those waters under maritime rules.
In a statement from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, spokesperson Tian Junli said Chinese forces expelled the aircraft after it “illegally intruded into the territorial airspace over China’s Huangyan Dao without the approval of the Chinese government.”
Tian urged the Philippines to stop “infringing upon China’s rights, making provocations, and hyping up” the incident, the statement said.
China seized effective control of Scarborough—known in Beijing as Huangyan Island and in Manila as Bajo de Masinloc—in 2012 following a standoff.
Tensions again flared in August when a Chinese navy destroyer and a coast guard vessel collided while intercepting a Philippine government mission to supply local fishermen. Just days later, China’s State Council declared a nature reserve over much of the shoal, drawing protests from both Manila and Washington.
In a landmark 2016 ruling, a Hague-based arbitral tribunal classified Scarborough Shoal as a rock under UNCLOS, meaning it does not generate its own exclusive economic zone. However, the shoal lies well within the Philippines' 200‑nautical‑mile EEZ from Luzon.
What People Are Saying
Collin Koh wrote on X: “Interesting that the PLA Navy would deploy one of its two Type‑901 fleet replenishment vessels, the largest built so far by the People's Republic of China to primarily support carrier operations, for sovereignty assertion at Scarborough Shoal.
Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Monday: “The baseless, inflammatory, confrontational and politically motivated remarks frequently made by certain people of the Philippine military are completely unacceptable. Time to stop the provocation and vilification.”
What Happens Next
China is expected to continue expanding its presence within the Philippine maritime zone
Neither side is expected to back down anytime soon. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed not cede “one square inch” of Manila‑claimed territory."
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