US Condemns China After South China Sea Vessel Clash Injures Filipino Fishermen

Udumbara Udumbara
Dec 15, 2025 - 10:54 Updated: Dec 15, 2025 - 03:08
0
US Condemns China After South China Sea Vessel Clash Injures Filipino Fishermen

.

U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson condemned the Chinese regime on Dec. 14 after Manila reported a water cannon attack by the Chinese coast guard injured three Filipino fishermen and damaged their two boats in the South China Sea.

“China Coast Guard’s aggressive tactics—water cannoning and cutting anchor lines—against Filipino fishers at Sabina Shoal threaten lives and livelihoods,” Carlson said in a post on X.

“We strongly condemn these illegal actions” and applaud the Philippine coast guard for supporting the fishers and defending the country’s sovereign rights, she added.

The Philippines said on Dec. 13 that China’s coast guard vessels and maritime militia ships deployed water cannons and carried out “dangerous blocking maneuvers” against Filipino fishing boats off a disputed South China Sea shoal.

According to Manila’s coast guard, the confrontation took place on Dec. 12, when about 20 Filipino fishing boats were operating in the waters near Sabina Shoal, an uninhabited and disputed feature known as Escoda in Manila and Xianbin in Beijing.

A small Chinese coast guard ship “deliberately cut the anchor lines” of several Filipino fishing boats, putting the vessels and their crews at risk “amid strong currents and high waves,” the Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in a statement on X.

As a result, three Filipino fishermen sustained injuries, and two fishing vessels suffered “significant damage from high-pressure water cannon blasts,” Tarriela said.

Sabina Shoal lies about 75 nautical miles from the Philippines and 600 nautical miles from China. The Philippines asserts that the shoal is within its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, as recognized by international law.

The Chinese regime claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own, including the areas near Sabina Shoal. A 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court determined that Beijing’s assertion was inconsistent with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, but the regime refused to recognize the decision.

China’s coast guard has acknowledged the encounter with Filipino vessels, while accusing Manila of provocation.

Multiple Philippine vessels “deliberately intruded” into waters near Xianbin reef despite China’s repeated warnings, regime coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a Dec. 12 statement. The Chinese side took “necessary control measures in accordance with the law and relevant rules,” including issuing verbal warnings and driving them away, Liu added.
.
In a separate statement on Dec. 12, the Chinese military said it had warned and “expelled” several small Philippine aircraft flying over Scarborough Shoal, another contested area in the South China Sea. No specific date of the incident was provided.
.
U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth has denounced the Chinese regime’s increasingly “destabilizing” actions in the South China Sea. Speaking to his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Nov. 1, Hegseth pointed out that China’s provocative actions, such as using its vessels to ram other ships and firing water cannons, threaten the sovereignty of its neighbors and undermine regional stability.

The Pentagon chief urged Southeast Asian nations to work with the United States to jointly respond to threats posed by the Chinese regime.

“We need to develop our joint capabilities to respond, and this includes being able to monitor maritime conduct and develop the tools that allow us to respond quickly ... ensuring that whoever is on the receiving end of aggression and provocation is then, therefore, by definition, not alone,” Hegseth told ASEAN defense ministers in Malaysia.

“No one can innovate and scale like the United States of America, and we’re eager to share those capabilities with allies and partners.”

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
.
Read More