On Sunday, a Chinese coast guard vessel unleashed a high-pressure water cannon and subsequently collided with a moored Philippine government ship near an island populated by Filipinos in the contested South China Sea. This incident was reported by the Philippine coast guard.

Fortunately, the Filipino crew members aboard the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, which is part of a fisheries fleet that aids local fishermen, were unharmed.

This clash occurred near Thitu Island, which the Philippines administers, marking another episode in the ongoing territorial tensions between Manila, Beijing, and four other nations.

The Chinese coast guard claimed that the Philippine ships had unlawfully entered what China considers its territorial waters, near a sandbar cluster known as Sandy Cay, situated between Thitu Island and China’s man-made island base at Subi Reef. They accused the vessels of ignoring multiple stern warnings.

The Chinese coast guard stated that it “enforced control measures on the Philippine vessels in accordance with the law and firmly expelled them.”

China has repeatedly restated its sovereignty and control over virtually the entire South China Sea, a major trade route, despite a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated its historic claims.

That ruling has been rejected by China but supported by the United States and its Western and Asian allies, including Japan, Australia, the European Union and Canada.

Pagbuaya and two other Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels were anchored in the territorial waters off Thitu, called Pag-asa by the Philippines, when Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships suddenly approached and staged “dangerous and provocative maneuvers,” the Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a statement. He added that such aggression would not prompt Manila to “surrender a square inch of our territory to any foreign power.”

A Chinese coast guard ship with bow number 21559 “fired its water cannon directly at the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, hitting the vessel,” then rammed the stern of the Philippine fisheries vessel three minutes later, causing “minor structural damage but no injuries to the crew.”

Video issued by the Philippine coast guard shows a Chinese coast guard ship firing a water cannon, hitting the vessel and its two Philippine flags.

The Filipino-manned ship is seen moving away from the Chinese coast guard ship.

“Despite these bullying tactics and aggressive actions, the Philippine coast guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources remain resolute,” Tarriela said. “We will not be intimidated or driven away.”

In Beijing, Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement the two Philippine vessels illegally entered waters near Sandy Cay, which China calls Tiexian Reef, “without the permission of the Chinese government.” One dangerously approached the Chinese Coast Guard vessel, causing a scrape, he said.

The responsibility rests entirely with the Philippine side, Liu said, accusing the Philippines of undermining the peace and stability in the South China Sea and ”sternly warned” the Southeast Asian country “to immediately stop infringement and harassment.”

“The harassment we faced today only strengthens our resolve,” Philippine coast guard commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan said. “Filipino fisherfolk depend on these waters and neither water cannons nor ramming will deter us from fulfilling our commitment to Pres. Ferdinand Marcos to not surrender a square inch of our territory to any foreign power.”

Thitu is the largest of nine islands, islets and reefs inhabited by Philippine forces and also has a fishing community in the Spratlys archipelago, the most fiercely disputed region of the South China Sea, where China turned seven barren reefs into island bases protected by a missile system.

Three of the artificial islands have runways, including Subi, which lies just more than 12 miles from Thitu, which China also claims.

The latest territorial faceoff in the South China Sea adds to domestic emergencies being dealt with by the Marcos administration, including recent earthquakes, which left more than 80 people dead in the central and southern Philippines and back-to-back typhoons that devastated the same regions.