China's Southern Theater Command says it warned off Philippine patrol plane over Scarborough Shoal

China's People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said on 5 October that its naval and air forces tracked, monitored, warned and drove away a Philippine C-208 aircraft that it accused of illegally entering the airspace over Scarborough Shoal on 3 October. Beijing calls the shoal Huangyan Dao. The statement came a day after the Philippine military said a Chinese J-16 fighter had flown dangerously close to the same patrol.

Command spokesman Senior Captain Zhai Shichen said the Philippine aircraft had entered what Beijing regards as its territorial airspace without the approval of the Chinese government. He said the Philippine action seriously violated Chinese sovereignty and could easily cause an accident at sea or in the air, told Manila to stop its rights violations and provocations immediately, and said theatre forces remain on high alert.

The statement was posted on the command's WeChat account, according to CNA in Singapore and Taiwan's Central News Agency. As quoted by both outlets, it did not mention a J-16 or describe how close the Chinese aircraft came to the C-208.

Manila's account

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said its Air Force C-208, a single-engine turboprop, was on a routine maritime patrol near Bajo de Masinloc, the Philippine name for the shoal, when it encountered two Chinese military aircraft on 3 October. One was identified as a J-16.

According to the military, the J-16 repeatedly approached the Philippine aircraft, manoeuvred ahead of and around it and positioned itself in the C-208's wake, which it said posed an aviation safety risk. The aircraft completed its patrol and returned safely. The military said its crew acted professionally and that it will keep flying routine maritime and air patrols over the West Philippine Sea, an area it describes as part of the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

The two statements describe the same flight in incompatible terms. Beijing treats the shoal as Chinese territory with sovereign airspace above it, while Manila presents the flight as a lawful patrol and the fighter's behaviour as the danger.

A busy fortnight around the shoal

The exchange follows weeks of friction. Central News Agency noted that government vessels from the two countries collided in disputed waters on 18 September and that their ships faced off at Second Thomas Shoal on 24 September, when the Philippine Coast Guard said China obstructed a resupply mission to the grounded warship that Manila keeps there.

The Southern Theater Command then held joint naval and air training around Scarborough Shoal on 27 September while the China Coast Guard ran law-enforcement drills, and the PLA described the activity as necessary action against countries undermining regional stability. On 30 September the command flew a combat-readiness patrol around the shoal and the coast guard carried out what it called law-enforcement inspections, with both saying they were strengthening control over the area's waters and airspace.

Manila also reported a second confrontation on 4 October in the Spratly Islands. The Philippine Coast Guard said China Coast Guard ships 5102 and 21581 blocked its boats as they pursued a suspected blast-fishing vessel near Pag-asa Island, with one cutter coming within about 10 yards of a Philippine response boat, and that a PLA Navy helicopter circled the team four times.

CNA reported that the weekend incidents came about two weeks after the Philippines said a China Coast Guard ship rammed one of its fisheries boats elsewhere in the Spratlys, an incident for which Beijing blamed the Philippine vessel.