Chinese navy, coast guard monitor US-Philippine drills in South China Sea
China deployed a warship and coast guard vessels over the weekend to keep tabs on U.S. and Philippine drills that Beijing said threatened "peace and stability" in the contested South China Sea.
Photos released by ABS-CBN News showed one of the Chinese navy's new Jiangkai-class guided-missile frigates shadowing the drills, which included U.S. Coast Guard vessels and Philippine coast guard and navy ships. Three Chinese coast guard cutters were also observing from a distance, the Philippine news agency said.
The allied patrols took place less than 60 miles from Scarborough Shoal, ABS-CBN wrote. Scarborough is a rich fishing ground China wrested from the Philippines—a U.S. defense treaty ally—in 2012.
A flurry of Chinese actions there have renewed tensions following a serious collision in 2025, Beijing's move to declare a nature reserve over much of the shoal, and China's placement of a floating platform—later removed—and other objects within Scarborough's lagoon, in what Philippine officials said was a violation of the country's sovereignty.
Newsweek has contacted the Philippine military and the Pentagon for comment via email.
Beijing argued that the platform was a temporary scientific research facility.
China's patrols over the weekend were "routine," Zhai Shichen, a spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army's Southern Command, said in a statement on Monday.
"The Philippines has been colluding with countries outside the region" and undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea, Zhai said, pledging that the Southern Command would "resolutely defend" China's sovereignty and maritime rights.
The exercise was the eighth of this year's "maritime cooperative activities"—the U.S. and Philippines' term for the exercises. Washington began joining the MCAs in 2023 as part of efforts to support the Philippines amid China's expanding footprint inside the Southeast Asian country's exclusive economic zone.
"This activity demonstrated a collective commitment to strengthening regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," the U.S. Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement.
The drills included search-and-rescue exercises, ship maneuvers and information-sharing drills to improve Philippine forces' awareness of activity in waters under their jurisdiction.
The training reaffirmed support for a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region, the Philippine coast guard wrote in a separate statement on Monday.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Feng and Shakeema Edwards.