A brief statement from Beijing provides few details beyond saying the Chinese coastguard had ‘handled the incident’.
The Chinese coastguard has “handled an incident” involving dozens of Philippine nationals who landed on a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Thursday, Beijing said.
China’s coastguard said in a statement on its official social media accounts that 34 people had had “ignored warnings from the Chinese side and illegally landed” on Tiexian Reef, part of the northern Spratly Islands.
The statement did not say whether the Filipinos were military personnel or civilians. It also did not say if they had been detained or expelled by the Chinese coastguards.
“Law enforcement officers of the Chinese coastguard landed on the reef, investigated and handled the incident in accordance with the law,” coastguard spokesman Gan Yu said, without further elaborating.
He said China has an “indisputable” sovereign right to the Spratlys, including the reef, and firmly opposed the landing attempt that “violates China’s territorial sovereignty and undermines peace and stability in the South China Sea”.
