The Philippines accused, on Saturday December 9, the Chinese coast guard of having fired water cannons several times to “hinder” three government boats near the Beijing-controlled Scarborough Reef, which claims almost the entire South China Sea.
In a video relayed by the Philippine Coast Guard, Chinese Coast Guard vessels appear firing water cannons at Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels while supplying fishing boats.
China took control of the Philippines’ Scarborough Reef in 2012. It has since deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Filipino ships and fishermen, preventing them from reaching the lagoon, where fish are more abundant.
Scarborough Reef lies 240 kilometers west of the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, and nearly 900 kilometers from the shores of China’s Hainan province.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped negotiate, countries have jurisdiction over natural resources within approximately 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) of their borders. ribs.