Chinese Coast Guard Rams Philippine Vessel

Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels bullied Philippine boats near Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea yesterday, with one intentionally ramming a Philippine boat.

Pag-asa lies well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as defined by international law, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reinforced by a 2016 international court ruling. But China rejects international law when it doesn’t serve its purposes and claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own, including sections belonging to the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. China enforces its claims partly by antagonizing the vessels of these other nations in their own waters.

Though yesterday’s ramming caused only minor damage and no injuries, it marks yet another instance of China’s illegal and destabilizing aggression in one of the world’s most important maritime regions. Watch for China to increase its belligerence in this area as it keeps pushing the world toward war.