The Philippines has condemned the China Coast Guard’s move to install a floating barrier in a flash point area of the contested South China Sea, just 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the Philippine coast.
A Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said the organization and the country’s fisheries agency “strongly condemn” the move in the Southeast area of the Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as the Bajo de Masinloc. Manila said the barrier prevents Filipino fishing boats from entering the shoal, “depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities.”
China effectively administers the rocky outcroppings, though the Philippines and Taiwan also claim the shoal.