Beijing and Manila traded blame over collisions between coast guard vessels in the disputed South China Sea on Monday, with China accusing the Philippines of “intentionally ramming” one of its ships and later violating a provisional agreement on a hotly contested area of the waterway.

In a statement, the China Coast Guard said two Philippine Coast Guard ships had “ignored repeated warnings” and sailed in an "unprofessional and dangerous" manner near Sabina Shoal, with video posted by the Chinese side showing a collision occurring in the early hours of Monday.

“The responsibility for the collision lies entirely with the Philippine side,” China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said. “We squarely advise the Philippine side to immediately cease its infringement and provocations, or else it will bear all the consequences."

The Philippine military, meanwhile, blamed the Chinese side, saying its “unlawful” and “aggressive” maneuvers had resulted in several collisions, causing structural damage to the two Philippine Coast Guard ships — including a 2.5-by-3-foot (76-by-91-centimeter) hole in an area near the port auxiliary engine of one vessel.

Philippine National Security Council Assistant Director-General Jonathan Malaya said in a statement that despite the incidents, both vessels “remain committed to and shall proceed with their mission of delivering essential supplies” to personnel stationed on Flat and Nanshan islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly chain. Both are administered by the Philippines but also claimed by China.

Separately, the China Coast Guard said in another statement that one of the Philippine vessels had later Monday morning entered waters near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal — home to a Philippine military garrison — after being prevented from entering the area around Sabina Shoal.

The Chinese side said it had taken undefined “control measures” against the Philippine vessel, claiming that Manila was “seriously infringing on China's sovereignty and undermining regional peace and stability" by violating a provisional agreement reached in July following a number of incidents near Second Thomas Shoal, which is also claimed by Beijing.

The Philippine military’s statement did not address the Chinese reports that a coast guard vessel had entered waters near the Second Thomas Shoal.

Those waters have become a dangerous flash point in the South China Sea — which Beijing claims in nearly its entirety under its so-called nine-dash line despite overlapping claims by Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Philippines has a handful of service members stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal outpost, which is built on the rusting hull of the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era warship purposefully grounded on the shoal in 1999 to assert Manila's claims to the area.

The troops require frequent resupply missions of food, water and other necessities as well as transport for the rotation of personnel.

The BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been aground since 1999, houses a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea.
The BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been aground since 1999, houses a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea. | REUTERS

Prior to the temporary agreement — details of which have remained opaque — China had attempted to block a number of these missions, alleging they were cover for the shipping of large amounts of building materials to reinforce the dilapidated garrison.

The standoff resulted in a spate of incidents, stoking fears of a miscalculation erupting into a wider clash that draws in the United States, which has a mutual defense pact with Manila.

A June confrontation saw Chinese coast guard members wielding axes and a Philippine sailor losing his thumb in what was widely seen as a sharp escalation that highlighted Beijing’s willingness to push the envelope in the strategic waterway.

And earlier this month, Manila said Chinese fighter jets had "deliberately deployed flares" into the flight path of a Philippine Air Force patrol aircraft in the skies over Scarborough Shoal in the contested waterway.

Top American officials have repeatedly emphasized that the 1951 U.S.-Philippine mutual defense treaty applies to armed attacks on either nation's armed forces or public vessels “anywhere in the Pacific and in the South China Sea.”