Philippines says China shot flares at its South China Sea plane

The Philippine government accused China on Saturday of firing flares at one of its aircraft as it flew patrols over the South China Sea this month.

Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway and has been involved in tense maritime confrontations with Manila in recent months, sparking fears of armed conflict that could draw in the United States, a Filipino military ally.

A Chinese fighter jet “engaged in irresponsible and dangerous manoeuvres” on August 19 as the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources plane made a “maritime domain awareness flight” near Scarborough Shoal, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said.

The unprovoked Chinese “harassment” included “deploying flares multiple times at a dangerously close distance of approximately 15 metres from the BFAR Grand Caravan aircraft”, the task force added in a statement.

Flares were also launched near the same plane from the China-held Subi Reef on August 22 as the patrol craft was “monitoring and intercepting poachers encroaching upon the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone and the territorial seas” of the Philippines, it added.

China’s foreign ministry on Friday said it undertook unspecified “countermeasures” against two Philippine military aircraft that flew into its airspace over Subi Reef on August 22.

The ministry announcement did not mention any August 19 incident over Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines at the end of a 2012 standoff.