Chinese ships are allegedly firing water cannons and colliding with smaller Filipino vessels as tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea reached their most hazardous point of the year this past weekend.

After years of highly tense maritime encounters at hotspot reefs in the disputed South China Sea, the Philippines announced on Monday that it had called the former’s envoy and raised the prospect of his expulsion.

Additionally, according to the Philippines, Chinese boats used a Long-Range Acoustic Device, which left some Filipino crew members “severely temporarily uncomfortable and incapacitated.”

Why is China’s Envoy Summoned?

On Saturday and Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard captured footage of Chinese ships firing water cannon at Philippine boats while on two different resupply runs to fishermen at Scarborough Shoal and a small garrison at Second Thomas Shoal.

At Second Thomas Shoal, where a small contingent of Filipino soldiers is stationed on a grounded cruiser, there was also a collision between Philippine and Chinese boats, for which both nations took responsibility.

According to officials, General Romeo Brawner, the head of the Philippine military, was on board the Filipino supply boat that was involved in the crash.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, foreign ministry spokesperson Teresita Daza stated that diplomatic protests had been made and that “the Chinese ambassador has also been summoned”.

Daza stated that designating Huang Xilian, the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, as “persona non grata” was likewise “something that has to be seriously considered”.

The use of a long-range ultrasonic device and the ramming and water cannoning of Filipino boats by China, according to Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the National Security Council, constituted a “serious escalation” of their methods, he told reporters.

However, Beijing’s foreign ministry said that it had “lodged stern representations” with Manila and that the coast guard’s actions were “professional” and “restrained”.

Prior to this, the China Coast Guard claimed that one of the Philippine supply boats had intentionally struck its ship in spite of “multiple stern warnings”.

The Nuclear Power Nation has disregarded an international tribunal’s decision that its claims lack legal support and continues to assert its claims over nearly the whole South China Sea. In order to bolster its claims, it has constructed artificial islands and militarized them. It also sends boats out to patrol the heavily traveled river.

“Hazardous and disturbing actions in the sea between Philippine and China”

On Sunday, the US State Department urged China to stop its “dangerous and destabilizing” maritime activities. Manila’s foreign embassies have also criticized the country’s actions.

Analysts predicted that tensions would rise because the encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels over the weekend were the most heated in recent memory.

According to Song Zhongping, an analyst and former Chinese military officer, tensions were being exacerbated by Manila feeling “emboldened to provoke China” as a result of US support for the Philippines.

According to Michael Raska, an assistant professor and military analyst at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, China’s activities were “not only designed to intimidate and coerce the Philippines into accepting China’s territorial claims, but more likely to test the US resolve”.

After a violent confrontation, China took Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012, and in an effort to halt China’s advance, the Philippine Navy purposefully grounded a World War II-era navy cruiser on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999.

After being followed by Chinese warships, a convoy of civilian boats that was scheduled to bring supplies to Filipino fishermen and soldiers in the South China Sea called off its mission on Sunday, according to the organizers.

In a Monday update, they stated that one of the supply boats had continued and reached the Philippine-controlled island of Nanshan, where it unloaded its contents.

President Ferdinand Marcos has worked to strengthen defense cooperation in the region and strengthen connections with Washington, but he has also pushed back against Chinese moves in the South China Sea, which has damaged relations between Manila and Beijing.

The Blame game

The collisions took place in the Spratly Islands, a highly contentious area where Beijing sends ships to bolster its claims over nearly the whole sea, close to Second Thomas Shoal.

The “dangerous blocking manoeuvers of China Coast Guard vessel 5203 caused it to collide with the Armed Forces of the Philippines-contracted indigenous resupply boat” approximately 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Second Thomas Shoal, according to a task group of the Philippine government.

According to China, the resupply boat disregarded “multiple warnings and deliberately passed through law enforcement in an unprofessional and dangerous manner,” which led official television CCTV to claim, quoting the foreign ministry, resulting in the “slight collision.”

A Philippine coastguard vessel on a regular resupply run was “bumped” in another incident by what the Philippine task force called a “Chinese Maritime Militia vessel”.

However, China claimed that the Philippine boat had “deliberately” caused difficulty by deliberately reversing into a Chinese fishing craft.

The stern of the smaller resupply vessel and the Chinese coastguard ship were briefly in contact, according to video that the Philippine military published. The Philippine ship keeps moving forward.

According to the National Security Council, which cited the coastguard in its statement, there were no injuries on board either Philippine vessel, but the supply boat that was engaged in the accident sustained damage.

“Successfully resupplying our troops and personnel stationed there” was the statement issued when a second resupply boat managed to reach the grounded BRP Sierra Madre.

China has defied an international verdict that says its declaration lacks legal basis and continues to claim practically the whole South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars worth of trade flow each year.

The western Philippine island of Palawan is around 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from Second Thomas Shoal, whereas Hainan island, China’s closest significant landmass, is almost 1,000 kilometers away.

Regarding Sunday’s events, China stated that “responsibility lies entirely with the Philippines”.

Officials and academics have cautioned against collisions as China asserts its claims to authority over the waterways with ever-greater confidence.