TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided at sea, damaging at least two vessels, in an encounter early Monday near a new flashpoint in their increasingly alarming confrontations in the disputed South China Sea.
Each blamed the other for the collision near Sabina Shoal, a disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands, where Vietnam and Taiwan also have overlapping claims. There were no reports of injuries.
China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of deliberately crashing one of its ships into a Chinese vessel. It said in a statement on its website that two Philippine coast guard ships entered waters near the shoal, ignored a warning from the Chinese coast guard and intentionally collided with one of the Chinese boats at 3:24 a.m.
“The Philippine side is entirely responsible for the collision,” spokesperson Gan Yu said. “We warn the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocation, otherwise it will bear all the consequences arising from that.”
Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the Philippine government’s National Security Council, accused the Chinese coast guard of falsely saying the Philippine coast guard ships had rammed its vessels.
Video and photographs, including ones taken by journalists from a U.S. TV network who were on board one of the Philippine coast guard ships, showed that the Chinese ships caused the collisions, Malaya told a news forum in Manila.
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