The photo shows a China Coast Guard vessel with bow number 3303 monitored by the Philippine Coast Guard near Panatag Shoal. —PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD

MANILA, Philippines — Reporters from Kyodo News and other media outlets recently witnessed firsthand just how close vessels from China and the Philippines are getting to one another during the two nations’ long-running territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

The reporters were aboard a 44-meter Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) patrol ship earlier this month when it and two other Philippine vessels were shadowed for more than four hours by three China Coast Guard (CCG) ships, one of which came within 300 meters.

The Philippine ships were on a mission between Dec. 12 and Dec. 14 to deliver supplies to fishermen at Escoda (Sabina) Shoal within the country’s exclusive economic zone, one of several contested shoals in the resource-rich sea.

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The two PCG vessels and a government-funded supply boat were halfway through their journey to the shoal when they were intercepted by the three Chinese patrol ships.

“Every time we sped up, they sped up, too,” a PCG official said in a frustrated tone.

As the Philippine ships got closer to the shoal, the Chinese vessels became even more aggressive, forcing the PCG to stop or slow down. The game of cat-and-mouse carried on until the early evening on Dec. 12 before the PCG finally turned around and headed to a different shoal.

A PCG official later said the CCG had issued multiple radio warnings to them to turn off course or “suffer the consequences.”

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“It’s hard [to move forward] when your ship may [be fired by a] water cannon … We also [had to] think about the safety of our crew,” the official told reporters.

Direct attack

The decision to withdraw was made hours after another group of CCG vessels fired water cannons at Filipino fishermen at the shoal and cut the anchor lines of their boats, injuring three of them and damaging two fishing boats, in what the Philippines said was China’s first direct attack on civilian fishermen.

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The two incidents are part of ongoing tensions between Beijing and other nations over sovereignty of the South China Sea, disputes that besides the Philippines also involve Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, invalidated China’s sweeping claims, but the country rejected the decision and has continued its military buildup in the area.

The PCG has said it monitored a total of eight CCG ships in the vicinity of Escoda Shoal between Dec. 12 and Dec. 14. A warship and two militia boats as well as two Chinese Navy choppers, were also sighted.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin said on Wednesday the shoal, which he called Xianbin Jiao, is part of the Spratly Islands, over which China has indisputable sovereignty, he said.

Escoda Shoal, located 139 kilometers off the Philippines’ western island of Palawan, emerged as a new flash point between China and the Philippines in 2024 when China reportedly started reclaiming the shoal.

‘Turning point’

The PCG sent a large vessel there in April last year to monitor Chinese activities. But the vessel was withdrawn in September after it ran out of supplies and Chinese ships began to constantly patrol around the shoal.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson, said on Dec. 13 the Philippines’ withdrawal marked a “turning point.” It had allowed China to deploy its ships around the shoal, which is located near the sea’s gas-rich Recto (Reed) Bank and about 93 km from militarized Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, which China has fortified into an artificial island, making it easier for them to deploy military assets, he said.

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But Tarriela said Manila intends to keep sending its patrol ships to the vicinity “so as not to legitimize the presence of [the] Chinese there.” /cb