As the Philippine Coast Guard plane carrying the journalists flew over the hotly disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a Chinese voice shouted over the radio: “Shoot immediately.”
The order came from a radio operator on a Chinese coast guard vessel 3,500 feet (1,000 meters) below – one of dozens of vessels seen plying the water.
AFP was one of several media outlets given a rare opportunity on Thursday to fly over dozens of small islands and reefs where the Philippines, China and several other countries have competing claims.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys, ignoring international rulings that claims have no legal basis.
In the past decade, thousands of hectares of coral reefs have been ripped up in the archipelago to create military islands with runways, harbors and radar systems.
To assert their claim, hundreds of Chinese coastguards and other boats patrol the waters, swarming reefs, harassing and attacking fishermen and other boats.
They also tried to repel non-Chinese aircraft from overhead.
“You have entered (the waters around) the Chinese reef and are a security threat. To avoid misunderstandings, leave immediately,” said a Chinese radio operator, in one of seven messages issued in Chinese and English as a coast guard plane flew over the island. and the Philippine-occupied shelf.
The Filipino pilot replied that he was flying in his country’s territory.
‘Bullying behaviour’
During the four-hour flight in the Cessna Caravan, Philippine Coast Guard personnel identified nearly 20 Chinese vessels, including what they described as “maritime militia” vessels, in the waters around some of the nine Philippine-controlled islands and reefs.
Seventeen ships reported by the Philippine Coast Guard as Chinese maritime militia were also spotted near Sabina Shoal, which Manila claims.
Fifteen Chinese vessels were spotted near Thitu, the largest Philippine-controlled island, which lies about 430 kilometers (267 miles) from the Philippines’ main island of Palawan and more than 900 kilometers from China’s nearest mainland on Hainan island.
The Philippine Coast Guard said that was down from 42 the previous week.
A Chinese navy ship is 15 kilometers from the island, while a coast guard vessel is half that distance, according to estimates provided by the Philippine Coast Guard.
In the Second Thomas Shoal, where Philippine marines are stationed on a non-landing naval ship to assert Manila’s territorial claims in the waters, a Chinese coast guard vessel is about 11 kilometers away, Philippine authorities said.
Last month, a Chinese coastguard vessel was nearly 20 kilometers from the shoal when it allegedly used a military-grade laser light on a Philippine patrol boat.
This is the latest maritime incident between the Philippines and China.
This sparked a new diplomatic row and prompted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to take the unusual step of confronting the Chinese ambassador in Manila.
Marcos has insisted that he will not allow China to trample on Philippine maritime rights – in contrast to his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte who was reluctant to criticize Beijing.
The Philippines’ new strategy is to call out China’s “bullying behavior and aggressive actions,” Commodore Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, told a forum in the capital Manila on Wednesday.
Manila refers to the waters immediately to the west as the West Philippine Sea.
The Coastguard regularly publishes information, including photos and videos, about Chinese vessels in the waters around Philippine-occupied features.
This helps inform Filipinos and allows other countries to criticize China for its activities, Tarriela said.
And pressured Beijing “to come out in the open to explain or lie everything”.