The U.S. condemned what it called “dangerous” Chinese maneuvers over the South China Sea after a close encounter between a Chinese helicopter and a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday.
“We condemn the dangerous maneuvers by a PLA Navy helicopter that endangered pilots and passengers on a Philippine air mission,” U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday. “We call on China to refrain from coercive actions and settle its disputes peacefully in accordance with international law.”
The Associated Press reported that over the contested South China Sea, a Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet of a Filipino patrol plane. The pilot of the Filipino plane warned via radio to the helicopter that it was “flying too close” and was “very dangerous,” according to the AP.
The Chinese military said the patrol plane had “illegally entered the airspace of China’s Huangyan Island without the Chinese government’s permission.”
China has competing interests with a number of countries bordering the South China Sea, a key trading route that has become a flashpoint of America’s global competition with China.
NBC News reported that the Philippines Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources plane was on a regular patrol close above the largely underwater Scarborough Shoal atoll.
China and the Philippines have historic contention over the Scarborough Shoal, with China seizing the island 12 years ago and the Chinese Coast Guard spraying a Filipino boat with water cannons late last year.
The Bureau of Fisheries, as well as the Philippine Coast Guard, said they are continually “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China,” in a statement obtained by the AP.
