Chinese coast guard strikes Filipino sailor at Second Thomas Shoal

Manila,UPDATED: Jul 20, 2026 17:30 IST

The Philippine military said Chinese coast guard personnel repeatedly struck a Filipino sailor on the head with a wooden baton on Monday at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, injuring him and damaging his smaller vessel. The assault was captured on video by other Filipino sailors and drew angry condemnation from Philippine officials, who said the navy personnel did not do anything that could have caused an escalation.

Chinese officials did not immediately issue a statement on the incident. However, they have repeatedly restated their claim to the shoal and to virtually the entire South China Sea, and have demanded that Manila pull away the long-marooned and now rusting BRP Sierra Madre, which is manned by Filipino navy personnel and serves as a fragile territorial outpost.

The Philippine military said a Chinese coast guard inflatable boat carrying eight personnel was deployed from a ship and approached the BRP Sierra Madre at close range, manoeuvring around it while those on board took pictures and videos.

Filipino sailors aboard two rubber boats asked the Chinese to back away in a non-confrontational manner. "The Chinese coast guard vessel personnel reacted violently and aggressively by striking a Philippine Navy personnel on the head with a wooden baton, causing injury and damaging the navy rubber boat," the Philippine military said. It added that the extent of the sailor's injury was being assessed to determine whether he needed to be medically evacuated.

"No act of coercion or aggression will deter us from carrying out our constitutional mandate or exercising the Philippines' lawful rights in the West Philippine Sea," the military said, using the Philippine name for the South China Sea. "The latest act of violence and harassment committed by the China coast guard against Philippine navy personnel ... adds to a clear pattern of provocative and hostile behaviour and further contributes to the People's Republic of China's deficit of trust and credibility," the Department of Defence said.

The Philippines deliberately beached the Sierra Madre in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to serve as a territorial outpost. China, which also claims the shoal, later surrounded the atoll with its ships in a tense territorial stand-off that has dragged on for years.

The long-running territorial disputes, which also involve Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, are high on the agenda of annual talks in Manila this week between foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Both sides have been negotiating a non-aggression pact aimed at preventing a major armed conflict that could draw in the United States, which has vowed to help deter growing Chinese aggression and defend freedom of navigation in the busy waterway. The incident at the Second Thomas Shoal has unfolded against that wider diplomatic backdrop and the continuing stand-off around the BRP Sierra Madre.

With PTI Inputs

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