Philippine authorities say Chinese coast guard vessels obstructed a joint law-enforcement operation against a fishing boat suspected of using explosives near Thitu Island, forcing officers to abandon the pursuit.
The operation involved the Philippine Coast Guard, navy and national police maritime group. They were responding to a report of suspected blast fishing near Sandy Cays 2 and 3, roughly three nautical miles west of Thitu, which the Philippines calls Pag-asa.
According to the Philippine Coast Guard, its team repeatedly ordered the fishing vessel to stop. The boat continued southwest toward Subi Reef. Two China Coast Guard ships then sounded their horns, challenged the Philippine boats by radio, shadowed them and moved to block their course. A Chinese naval helicopter circled overhead four times, the Philippine account said.
The Philippine team ended the pursuit on safety grounds and returned to Thitu. No arrest was made, and the underlying allegation of dynamite fishing has not been tested in court or resolved by an enforcement proceeding.
The Coast Guard’s legal position is that Chinese vessels have no policing authority within Thitu’s territorial sea. It accused them of enabling a suspected violator to escape and rejected any suggestion that Philippine boats had been expelled from the area.
China had not issued a public response to the account by Sunday afternoon. Its embassy in Manila did not immediately answer requests for comment. In the absence of a Chinese version or independent documentation, the sequence and characterization of the maneuvers remain claims made by Philippine agencies.
The encounter is more than another sovereignty dispute. It raises a practical question about whose officers can enforce fisheries and criminal law around an occupied feature when rival vessels contest jurisdiction at close range. The Philippine decision to withdraw prevented an immediate escalation, but it also left the suspected fishing offense uninvestigated and the asserted limits of Chinese law-enforcement authority unresolved.
