Chinese Coast Guard rammed and boarded Philippine naval boats and confiscated their weapons in the South China Sea, injuring a Filipino soldier, the Philippine military said on Wednesday.

“The Chinese Coast Guard personnel illegally embarked on our RHIBS (rigid-hulled inflatable boats),” Rear Admiral Alfonso Torres told reporters, adding that Chinese boarders had some guns.

The incident is the latest in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent months off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where a tiny Philippine garrison is stationed on an old warship BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately beached.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    According to Torres, the Filipino sailors were under orders not to show their weapons in a confrontation, and one of them lost a thumb.

    I’m guessing that policy is about to change.