South China Sea Heat, Philippines To Chinese Troops: Only Hijackers Do This

ILLUSTRATION/HO-ChinaMilitary/Mii/TM)

JAKARTA - The Philippines accused the Chinese Coast Guard of carrying out a " brutal attack" with sharp weapons during a dispute in the South China Sea earlier this week.

Footage released by the Philippine military on Thursday, June 20, shows Chinese coast guard officers brandishing axes and other sharp objects at the Philippine army. Chinese officers slashed their rubber boats, which Manila called barrant acts of aggression.

The Philippines and China blame each other for the confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands which was contested on Monday, June 17, which occurred during the Philippine mission to supply its troops stationed on World War II-era warships stranded on the coast confirming Manila's territorial claim.

This incident is the latest in a series of increasingly fierce confrontations in the strategically resource-rich and important waterways.

But the events recorded in this latest footage mark a point of change in long-trouble tensions, with China adopting a new, much more aggressive, open tactic, which analysts say, appears to be taken into account to test how the Philippines and its main defense allies of the United States - will respond.

China claims undisputed sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, and most of the islands and dunes in it, including many areas hundreds of miles from mainland China.

Various countries, including Manila, have competing claims.

Senior Philippine military officials said Chinese Coast Guard officers 'illegally control' Philippine rubber boats, 'hit' seven rifles that were dismantled and stored in weapons boxes, 'destroying' affine motors, communication equipment and navigation, and taking personal goods. Filipino personnel phones.

"They deliberately stabbed our rubber boat with knives and other sharp tools," said Alfonso Torres Jr., commander of the Philippine Armed Forces Western Command (AFP), reported by CNN, Thursday, June 20.

A Filipino Navy soldier who was on a rubber boat lost his right thumb when the Chinese Coast Guard hit him, Torres said.

China's Coast Guard also deployed tear gas, spotlights that 'grabbed' and kept ringing sirens, the AFP said.

"Only pirates do this. Only pirates ride, steal and destroy ships, equipment and property," said General Romeo Brawner Jr., Chief of Staff of the Philippine Armed Forces, in a statement.

China's Coast Guard personnel carry sharp weapons and our personnel fight with their bare hands. That's what matters. We were outnumbered and their weapons were unexpected, but our personnel fought with everything they had," added Brawner.