BEIJING (AP) — China’s coast guard accused a Philippine ship of deliberately ramming one of its vessels on Tuesday near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed territory that both countries claim in the South China Sea. A coast guard statement said more than 10 Philippine government ships coming from various directions entered the waters around the shoal,…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Taiwan’s foreign minister has flown to the Philippines as head of a high-level delegation of investors, two senior Philippine officials said Saturday, prompting a protest from China and a warning to Manila “not to play with fire.” Relations between China and the Philippines have been strained as their coast guards and…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — China’s ambassador to Manila was summoned after Beijing imposed sanctions on a former Filipino senator who has been critical of China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea, Philippine officials said Tuesday. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that it was indefinitely prohibiting former Philippine senator Francis…
BANGKOK (AP) — China sanctioned a former Filipino lawmaker Tuesday over perceived “anti-China” positions, including his authorship of bills that marked out the Philippines’ territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea. Francis Tolentino, who has just finished serving his term as majority leader of the Philippine Senate, is prohibited from entering China as well…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine defense chief on Monday called China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea as “the biggest fiction and lie” that no Southeast Asian country would accept and said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aggressive policies have undermined the international goodwill fostered by his predecessors. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro fired…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines launched a comic book on Friday to counter what the country says is China’s disinformation campaign to push its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea. The 40-page comic book, titled “The Stories of Teacher Jun,” was unveiled by Philippine officials. It contains colorful caricatures of a Filipino…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea on Friday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by Chinese coast guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the joint…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military opened two weeks of combat drills Monday that would include seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea and likely be frowned upon by China. More than 3,000 Filipino army, navy and air force personnel will take part in the maneuvers, which Philippine military officials said were…