Philippine military condemns China air force for 'dangerous' acts in South China Sea

The Philippine military said on Saturday it strongly condemns "Dangerous and provocative actions" by China's air force at a contested shoal in the South China Sea. Two People's Liberation Army Air Force aircraft executed a dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a NC-212i Philippine air force propeller aircraft conducting a routine maritime patrol over the Scarborough shoal on Thursday morning, the military said in a statement. Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal one of two flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China. Beijing on Wednesday organized a combat patrol near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and refers to as Huangyan island. Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague that Beijing's expansive claims had no basis under international law. The Philippines in May accused Chinese fishermen of destroying the ecological environment in Scarborough with cyanide fishing, harvesting giant clams and other protected marine creatures, as well as scarring coral reefs, which China denied.