Philippines, China Butt Heads Over Encounter in the South China Sea

The foreign ministers of the Philippines and China met in Manila on Wednesday and both made "strong" protests over an encounter between the two

countries' vessels this week in contested South China Sea waters.



The Philippine foreign affairs secretary, Maria Theresa Lazaro, said in an X post that she reiterated the protest over what she called "unacceptable actions against Filipino personnel", while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted by an official readout as lodging a protest over "the Philippine

personnel's egregious act of ramming Chinese law-enforcement vessels".



Bilateral relations have been tense in recent years amid repeated maritime confrontations in the South China Sea, which China claims almost entirely as its own despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated those claims.



The incident this week took place on Monday in the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines said Chinese Coast Guard personnel struck one of the Philippine navy staff on the head with a wooden baton, and China said the Philippine personnel were the first to attack and accused Philippine vessels of ramming a

Chinese patrol boat.