Manila and Beijing are locked in an unusually open and sour dispute over what the Philippines calls the “swarming and threatening presence” of more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels around a reef in the South China Sea.
China’s foreign ministry has accused the Philippines of “hyping” the issue and claimed that the vessels, thought to be part of its maritime militia, were merely “sheltering from the wind”.
Rodrigo Duterte’s government pointed out that the weather had been fair in recent days while analysts said that similar incidents at sea often preceded China’s building of permanent structures on reefs and atolls to reinforce its maritime claims.
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