Fishermen in Subic Bay, the Philippines, in 2016. Many in the country’s defense establishment believe China has been encroaching on its waters.CreditCreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
By Jason Gutierrez and Hannah Beech/nytimes.com – Tensions in the disputed South China Sea ratcheted up on Thursday as the Philippine government protested the sinking of a Filipino boat by a Chinese fishing vessel, which left 22 Filipino fishermen floating at sea before they were rescued by a Vietnamese boat.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, demanded that China investigate the Sunday collision and punish the crew of the Chinese boat, which the Philippine government said had intentionally struck the vessel, leaving the Filipino fishermen at the “mercy of the elements.”
“Such an act of desertion is as inhuman as it is barbaric,” Mr. Panelo said in a statement.
Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and an expert on the geopolitics of the South China Sea, said that if the Chinese vessel had deliberately rammed a stationary Filipino boat, it would be a clear breach of international norms.
“That’s not only an act of aggression but a violation of the age-old obligation to assist mariners in distress, irrespective of whether the ships are operating in disputed waters,” Mr. Storey said.
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