Chinese Coast Guard rammed and boarded Philippine naval boats and confiscated their weapons in the South China Sea, injuring a Filipino soldier, the Philippine military said on Wednesday.
“The Chinese Coast Guard personnel illegally embarked on our RHIBS (rigid-hulled inflatable boats),” Rear Admiral Alfonso Torres told reporters, adding that Chinese boarders had some guns.
The incident is the latest in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent months off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where a tiny Philippine garrison is stationed on an old warship BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately beached.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The incident is the latest in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent months off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where a tiny Philippine garrison is stationed on an old warship BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately beached.
The Philippine boats were on a resupply mission Monday when they were attacked by the Chinese Coast Guard.
Philippines military chief General Romeo Brawner said the seized weapons were meant for Filipino troops manning the BRP Sierra Madre warship on the shoal.
“We fought back with our bare hands,” Brawner said, noting that the Filipino sailors were “outnumbered” by the eight-boat Chinese coast guard contingent.
According to Torres, the Filipino sailors were under orders not to show their weapons in a confrontation, and one of them lost a thumb.
China uses coast guard and other vessels to patrol the waters and has turned several reefs into militarized artificial islands.
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