The Philippine patrol vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua, Australian frigate HMAS Toowoomba, U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey and Philippine BRP Diego Silang sail in formation in the South China Sea on Feb. 16, 2026. (Oscar Diaz/U.S. Navy)
China and the Philippines accused each other of dangerous maneuvers in the South China Sea following a near-collision between two warships days before weekend talks on contested territory.
The two naval vessels nearly collided Thursday near Thitu, an island in the Spratly chain administered by the Philippines and also called Pag-asa.
Representatives from Beijing and Manila met Saturday in China for the 11th round of talks on territory in the South China Sea. The negotiators discussed “strategic, political-security and law enforcement issues,” the Philippines said Saturday in a news release.
Manila and Beijing described the talks as productive.
The South China Sea, parts of which Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea, is a flashpoint between the two countries, which have competing territorial claims there.
The entire Spratly chain, about 960 miles south of Taiwan, is claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan; portions of the chain are claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
On Thursday the Philippine tank landing ship BRP Benguet and the Chinese guided-missile frigate Jingzhou were operating near Thitu when the Chinese frigate began “closing in and passing at a dangerously close distance,” the Philippines’ Western Command said news release Thursday. The command also posted a video of the incident.
Beijing made similar accusations against Manila. The Benguet ignored warnings and deliberately turned into the Chinese frigate’s path, “disrupting its navigation,” according to Capt. Zhai Shichen, spokesman for China’s Southern Theater Command. Zhai’s remarks were posted Saturday on Facebook by China’s Embassy in Manila.
In an incident on March 7, the Philippine frigate BRP Miguel Malvar was on patrol near Sabina Shoal when the Chinese corvette Guang’an directed its fire control radar toward the ship, the Philippines’ Naval Defense Command said in a March 21 Facebook post.
The two incidents, along with the resumption of talks, point to a broader pattern of direct and indirect pressure by China on the Philippines, according to Renato Cruz De Castro, a professor at De La Salle University’s Department of International Studies in the Philippines.
President Ferdinand Marcos declared a state of “national energy emergency” in response to the United States’ war in Iran, which has disrupted global oil supplies. The agenda Saturday included discussions on “stable access to energy and fertilizers,” according to the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.
The Philippines is “panic mode” and “trying to grab every available hand,” Castro said by phone Monday.
The Chinese are offering a hand in the form of help restoring its energy supply while also intimidating the P:hilippines into an agreement with altercations at sea, he said. He expected nothing productive to come from the talks, he said.
“The Chinese are, you know, shrewd enough to extend a seemingly helping hand, but actually, that’s a ploy, that’s a gambit,” Castro said.
