Philippines and China summoned ambassadors after a Second Thomas Shoal confrontation.
Both sides exchanged blame over the South China Sea diplomatic escalation.
Fresh tensions highlighted worsening Philippines-China disputes in contested waters.
The Philippines and China have summoned each other's ambassadors following a confrontation at the Second Thomas Shoal in the contested South China Sea, with both sides accusing the other of provoking the incident in one of the sharpest diplomatic exchanges between the two countries in recent years, Reuters reported.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan in Manila on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Beijing had already called in Manila's envoy to China. Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed the summons to reporters, saying it had been scheduled for five in the afternoon.
The diplomatic flare-up followed an encounter on Monday in which Philippine and Chinese vessels came into direct contact near the Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint in the broader territorial dispute. Philippine officials said one of their navy personnel was struck on the head during the incident, while China's coast guard said two Philippine rubber boats rammed into one of its patrol vessels and that Filipino personnel initiated attacks using oars and long sticks. Beijing's foreign ministry described the Philippine side's actions as egregious, accusing Manila of provoking the incident and then distorting the facts. The Philippine military flatly rejected those claims on Tuesday, calling China's account false and misleading and saying its personnel had not initiated any confrontation, the news agency said.
Rare Diplomatic Escalation
The mutual summoning of ambassadors is relatively uncommon despite the frequency of friction between the two countries in the South China Sea. Tuesday's exchange marks only the third publicly known instance of China formally summoning the Philippine ambassador during Marcos's administration, following summonses in January 2024 over Manila congratulating Taiwan's president-elect Lai Ching-te, and in November 2024 after the Philippines enacted new maritime legislation.
Marcos last publicly summoned the Chinese ambassador in 2023, after a Chinese coast guard vessel directed a military-grade laser at a Philippine coast guard ship.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, the China Coast Guard said it had allowed the Philippines to evacuate an injured crew member from the grounded warship BRP Sierra Madre as a humanitarian gesture, with Chinese officers monitoring the entire process. Beijing said it would continue conducting what it called rights-protection and law-enforcement operations in waters near the shoal.
