The United States considers China’s harassment of a Philippine vessel in the South Sea to be provocative and dangerous

The Embassy of UNITED STATES In Filipinos accused China Stop “provocative” and “dangerous” behaviorafter the Philippine Coast Guard denounced the use of a “military” laser of a Chinese patrol boat against one of their ships in the South China Seatheater of territorial disputes.

“The Chinese Attitude directly threatens regional peace and stabilityundermines freedom of navigation in the South China Sea…and undermines the rules-based international order,” the US Embassy in the Philippines said in a statement on Tuesday.

A few hours earlier, the US State Department of Washington issued a message of support to Manila along the same lines.

The incident, which occurred on February 6, was reported Monday by the Philippine Coast Guard, which accused a Chinese coastal patrol of stepping up its harassment methods first using a blinding laser, “probably for military use”, against one of its ships near Ayungin Atoll in the South China Sea.

the atoll Accept – occupied by the Philippines – is located less than 200 miles (about 322 kilometers) from the west coast of palawanin the southwest of the archipelago and in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

“The Philippines has the right to conduct legitimate business in its exclusive economic zone… China has neither the power nor the right to travel around Ayungin Atoll or any part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines,” the spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines said today. Therese Daza.

Daza’s reaction follows a comment from China’s Foreign Ministry the day before, saying its coastguard ‘acted with professionalism and restraint’ when a Philippine vessel entered the waters of Ren Reef ‘without permission’. ‘ai (as China refers to Ayungin Atoll), over which Beijing asserts sovereignty.

This new episode comes at a particularly delicate moment, a week after the signing by the Philippines and the United States an agreement that guarantees the North American country access for its troops to four new military bases in “strategic” areas of the Philippines, which China considers “aggravating tensions in Asia”.

China and the Philippines they maintain a conflict for the sovereignty of several islands and atolls in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely for “historical reasons”Part of these territories are also disputed with Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei.

Meanwhile, the United States is seeking to thwart Beijing’s moves in key global trade and natural resource-rich waters, amid the two countries’ struggle to increase influence in the Pacific.

(With information from EFE)

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