Denying Allegations Of The Philippine Military, China Bilang Tidak Mentertapi Dan Mengambil Benda Di Laut China Selatan

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning China. (Source: fmprc.gov.cn)

JAKARTA - China denies using force to retrieve a floating object in the South China Sea, which rocket debris says.

China on Monday denied any of its coast guard vessels used force to retrieve a piece of rocket floating in the ocean pulled by a Philippine ship in the South China Sea.

Earlier, a Philippine military commander said China's coast guard ship 'forcedly took' the object by cutting the rope linking it to a Philippine ship.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at regular briefing the object was debris from rocket cargo fairing, a envelope protecting the spacecraft's nose cone, launched by China.

"People from the Philippines rescued and pulled the floating object first. After both sides negotiated friendly at the scene, the Philippines handed over the floating object to us," Mao said.

"It's not a situation where we intercepted and took the object," Mao said.

As previously reported, Deputy Admiral Alberto Carlos, commander of the Philippine Western Command, said in a statement the authorities sent a ship to inspect the object after being seen on Sunday morning, about 800 yards (730 meters) west of the island of Thitu.

The team tied the object to their ship and started pulling it. Then, the Chinese ship approached and blocked their path twice, before deploying a rubber boat that cut the rope, then took the object back to the coast guard ship, Carlos said.

The incident came as US Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in the Philippines on Sunday for talks aimed at reviving relations with Manila, an Asian ally that is important for Washington's efforts to counter China's increasingly assertive policy against Taiwan.

Vice President Harris, whose three-day trip includes a stopover in Palawan, an island on the coast of the South China Sea, will also reaffirm Washington's support for the 2016 international court ruling, which dropped China's expansive claim on the disputed waterway, a senior US official said.

It is known, China claims most of the South China Sea, the strategic waterways through which goods are worth billions of dollars annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also have claims.

Thitu, known to the Filipinos as Pagasa, is close to Subi Reef, one of seven artificial islands on Spratly where China installed land-to-air missiles and other weapons.

In addition, Thitu, one of the nine features occupied by the Philippines in the Spratly Islands, is the most important post for the most strategic Southeast Asian country in the South China Sea.

Separately, the Philippine Foreign Ministry said in a statement it would conduct a thorough review of the incident, awaiting detailed reports from maritime law enforcement agencies.