Manila’s coast guard said a Chinese navy helicopter “hovered at an unsafe altitude” above the Philippine fisheries agency’s inflatable boats on Friday, “creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash”.
“As a result of this continuous harassment and the disregard for safety exhibited by the Chinese maritime forces”, the Philippine Coast Guard said it and the fisheries agency “regrettably suspended their survey operations and were unable to collect sand samples” from unoccupied sandbars off Thitu.
Despite the “dangerous confrontations”, no accidents occurred, the coast guard added.
The Chinese foreign affairs ministry and Beijing’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment from AFP.
Also on Friday, the same day as the incident near Thitu, Philippine forces resupplied and rotated without incident troops manning a derelict navy vessel grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys, the foreign affairs department said.
Manila had deliberately grounded the vessel on the reef to assert its claim over the area.
The Philippine government raised the alarm this month over Chinese coast guard ships patrolling closer to the main Filipino island of Luzon, calling it an “intimidation tactic” by Beijing to discourage Filipino fishing.
China rejected the allegation, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying the patrols were “in accordance with the law”.
