The Philippine Fisheries Bureau on Thursday said Chinese coast guards boarded two Philippine fishing boats near Huangyan Island on April 11, and took the crew's catch.
Huangyan Island is Chinese territory. The coast guard patrols the waters to maintain order in the area, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing.
He urged the Philippines to respect China's territorial sovereignty and to ensure its fishermen are aware of the illegality of fishing in waters of the Huangyan Island.
Hong also dismissed media reports that a Chinese warship on Friday had shone a powerful light on a Philippine military plane near China's Nansha Islands in the South China sea as "untrue".
Philippine planes have illegally flown over Chinese waters on numerous occasions recently and China's guarding forces had issued a radio warning, the spokesperson added.
He said China's armed forces will continue to conduct surveillance over the waters and sky.
Xinhua - china.org.cn
25/4/15
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China's island-building to loom large at southeast Asia summit...
ReplyDeleteChina's creation of new island footholds in contested seas will hover over a southeast Asian summit that has become an annual test of the region's nerve in standing up to its massive neighbour.
The South China Sea hot potato drops this year into Malaysia's lap as the rotating chair of the 10 member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and host of Monday's meeting.
Asean states Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts of the strategic South China Sea, but Beijing claims nearly all of it and has moved aggressively to back that up.
Satellite photos that emerged this month triggered alarm bells by providing fresh evidence of large-scale reclamation works on contested reefs, which suggest that land masses big enough for airstrips and other large facilities are being created.
"It's a very significant escalation. We haven't really seen anything on this scale ever," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"We are talking about construction of significant military and civilian facilities and infrastructure."
The photos show a flotilla of Chinese vessels dredging sand onto Mischief Reef, which is near the Philippines and is claimed by Manila.........AFP.....http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
25/4/15