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.
You gotta remember World Wars take a bit to warm up first. Skirmish here, escalation there, lots of sitting on thumbs for a while, and then everyone piles in after the rate of occupation starts to get out of hand and the aggressors show deft multi-tasking skills.