HONG KONG — The United States condemned Wednesday what it called “dangerous maneuvers” by China after a Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet of a Philippine patrol plane in a disputed area of the South China Sea.
The incident took place Tuesday morning local time as a plane belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources was flying what Philippine officials said was a routine low-altitude patrol over the Scarborough Shoal, an atoll that is mostly underwater but is rich in fish stocks.
Video shared by the Philippine coast guard showed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy helicopter hovering above and to the left of the Philippine plane before moving away again in an effort to push the plane out of what Beijing says is its airspace.
“We condemn the dangerous maneuvers by a PLA Navy helicopter that endangered pilots and passengers on a Philippine air mission,” U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay L. Carson said in a post on the social media platform X. “We call on China to refrain from coercive actions and settle its disputes peacefully in accordance with international law.”
The Philippines, the oldest U.S. treaty ally in Asia, has been strengthening its security ties with the U.S., Japan, Australia and others as it increasingly clashes with China in the South China Sea, a strategically important shipping route that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.
There are a number of territorial disputes in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. But tensions between China and the Philippines have been especially high in the last two years as they spar over the Scarborough Shoal as well as the Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines intentionally grounded a navy ship in 1999 to establish a military outpost.
In a call with his Philippine counterpart last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio underscored the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the Philippines, which it is obligated to defend, and said he shared the Philippines’ concern about China’s “dangerous and destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea.
The Philippine plane was carrying personnel from the Philippine coast guard, as well as multiple journalists, officials said.
“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and it endangers the lives of our crew and passengers,” the video shows the pilot of the Philippine plane telling the Chinese navy helicopter by radio.
The Philippine government said it would issue a formal diplomatic protest over the incident.
“This blatantly hazardous action endangered the safety of the pilots and passengers onboard,” the Philippines’ Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns said in a statement Tuesday. “It demonstrated a lack of regard for internationally accepted norms on good airmanship and flight safety.”
“China’s illegal, aggressive and coercive behavior will not deter the Philippines from continuing the conduct of its routine maritime operations in accordance with its sovereignty over the shoal,” the statement continued.
The Chinese military disputed the Philippines’ account, saying the plane had illegally entered Chinese airspace and that the Philippines had “distorted the facts and spread false narratives.”
“The Southern Theater Command organized naval and air forces to track, monitor and warn the aircraft to leave based on laws and regulations,” Col. Tian Junli, spokesperson for the command, said in a statement. “The Philippine action severely violated China’s sovereignty and grossly infringed upon international law.”
The Philippines has accused China of escalating its tactics against its coast guard and other personnel, including the use of water cannons and a military-grade laser, while China also sees the Philippines’ behavior in the area as increasingly provocative.
In a dispute brought by the Philippines, an international tribunal in The Hague said in 2016 that Beijing’s South China Sea claims were invalid, a ruling that China has never accepted.
The Philippines has also invited local and foreign media to join its air and sea patrols, prompting China to accuse it of “hyping up” confrontations to gain support from the U.S. and others.
The latest incident between China and the Philippines came a week after Australia accused China of “unsafe and unprofessional” actions toward an Australian air force plane conducting what it said was a routine patrol in international airspace above the South China Sea. The Australian Defense Ministry said a Chinese PLA fighter jet had released flares within 100 feet of the aircraft.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday that the Australian military plane had deliberately intruded into Chinese airspace and that China had taken “legitimate, lawful, professional and restrained measures” to expel it.