alt

The Philippines lodged a protest with China on Tuesday over the issue, saying the Chinese were trying to keep the fishermen from fishing in Philippine waters around the Scarborough Shoal.

China's foreign ministry, which has already rejected the complaint, said its boats had every right to respond to "provocative" acts in its territory.

China suspected the aims and identities of several Philippine fishing boats that recently appeared in the waters around the Scarborough Shoal, as some of them appeared to just "hang around", foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

The Philippine boats ignored calls from the Chinese ships to leave, with some aboard even adopting a "provocative posture of appearing to spoil for a fight" in activities showing "a strong level of organization and confrontation," Hua said.

"In the face of this seriously provocative behavior, China maintained utmost restraint, and as multiple warnings failed, could not but take the minimum measures to carry out expulsions, which caused no harm to the Philippine fishing boats or personnel," she told a daily news briefing.

The Philippines was guilty of seizing Chinese fishing boats in the South China Sea, Hua said.

"This is like a thief crying, 'Stop, thief!'," she added. "The Chinese government will never tolerate these deliberate provocations."

Read more at Reuters

Click here for updated South China Sea news