Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided at sea, damaging at least two boats, in an encounter early Monday near a new flashpoint in their increasingly alarming confrontations in the disputed South China Sea.
Both blamed the other for the collision near Sabina Shoal, a disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands, where overlapping claims are also made by Vietnam and Taiwan. There were no reports of injuries.
China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of deliberately crashing one of its ships into a Chinese vessel. Two Philippine coast guard ships entered waters near the shoal, ignored the Chinese coast guard’s warning and intentionally collided with one of China’s boats at 3:24 a.m. (3:24 p.m. Sunday ET), a spokesperson said in a statement on the Chinese coast guard’s website.
