A vessel from China’s coastguard has blocked two Philippine government ships for hours a short distance from the south-east Asian country’s coast, in a further escalation of tension between the two nations in the disputed South China Sea.
The operation on Saturday night took place just 35 nautical miles from the Philippines’ coastline, and comes as Beijing pushes back against Washington’s high-profile moves this week to bolster Manila, its ally, against China.
The Chinese coastguard ship met a Philippine maritime research vessel and an escort ship from the Philippine coastguard, according to satellite imagery and ship tracking data collected by SeaLight, an open-source research initiative that tracks Chinese maritime activity in the area.
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