Above Skraber Schola, South -Chinese Sea – China's helicopter flew 10 meters from the Philippine Patrol on Tuesday in a controversial area South -China SeaPushing the Philippine pilot to warn on the radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.”
China China Claims are its airspace over the hot SCARBOROGH Shoal from the North Western Philippines.
The Associated Press journalist and others invited foreign media in the plane witnessed a tense 30-minute confrontation when the Philippine aircraft pressed on a low sophistication patrol around the Navy helicopter with a Chinese helicopter that hovers or flew left in cloudy weather.
Jam Sta Rosa/AFP/Getty
“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and threatening the life of our crew and passengers,” said the Filipin pilot on the Navy Chinese helicopter. “Hold on and moving away from us, you violate the safety standard set by FAA and ICAO.”
The pilot meant the standard distance between the aircraft required by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disaster.
There was no signs that the Filipin's aircraft had to change the planned path and altitude to avoid collision.
The statement of the Philippine Coast and Fisheries Bureau states that they remain “obliged to claim our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the Western Philippine Sea, despite China's aggressive and escalation actions.”
They referred to the Philippine name for the water section in the South -Chinese Sea closer to the West Coast of the Philippines.
The Chinese military, referring to the Schola Skarboro by their Chinese name, said the plane “illegally entered the air space on Juanan China's island without the permission of the Chinese government.”
The Chinese Southern Theater Command was organized by air -air and air forces to track and warn the plane, senior colonel Tian Junley, a team's press secretary, according to a written statement posted on the Internet.
The Philippines “were confused properly and incorrectly and distributed false stories,” the statement said.
Why the Philippine China's confrontation has the value for the US
The meeting on Tuesday, which is expected to protest the Philippine Government, is the last point of Flashpoint over the decades of territorial confrontation in one of the most busy trade routes in the world involving China, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
In the last two years, confrontations in the open sea have been flared between the Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard in Skarboro and the second Thomas Shoal, where the Filipino Military Ship has served a military territorial outpost since 1999, but has been closely surrounded Other ships.
While most analysts consider the most likely the origin of any potential military Conflict between the US and China It would be an attempt at China to invade Taiwan, the escalation tension between Beijing and the Philippines is also a possible contact point, since the US has a mutual defense of the Treaty with the Philippines, which can mean interference with American intervention.
China claims virtually all the South China Sea as its territory. It is one of the most vital waterways in the world, with more than $ 3 trillion goods that passed through their waters per year. As CBS News CECELIA VEGA reported within 60 minutes last yearTo assert its claim to the sea, China used tactics only war, sometimes leading to violent confrontationsWhat was called “the most dangerous conflict that no one is talking about.”
In December, the Philippines announced plans to purchase a US missile system as part Warnings from China Regional “Weapons Race”.
The United States has stated that it is obliged to defend the Philippines – its oldest ally of the Treaty in Asia – when the Philippine troops, ships or planes fall into an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. China warned the United States and its allies not to intervene in what it calls a purely Asian dispute.
The Story of the Philippine-China dispute
China has launched its military -marine force around Skarboro after a tense confrontation with the Philippine ships in 2012.
Next year, the Philippines led their disputes with China into international arbitration. The decision of the Arbitration Board, which is supported by the United Nations, is invalid expansive in China in the South China Sea based on the UN Convention on the Law of Mora.
China, the UNCLOS subscriber, like the Philippines, refused to participate in arbitration, rejected the results and continues to refuse.
Faced with the Chinese military force, the Philippines, under President Ferdinand, Markas -Youth, turned to the “Shame” campaign – built into his sea and air patrols of the Philippine and foreign journalists.
The Philippines also strengthen their security alliances with the United States, Japan, Australian, France, Canada, European Union and other Western countries to pull up their external defense.