The Chinese coast guard came in small boats with axes, long knives and spears.
They used the crude weapons to slash and puncture the Philippine military’s rubber craft. One Chinese boat rammed a Philippine boat at high speed, severing the thumb of a Filipino seaman who was holding on to the side of his ride.
Video footage isn’t paywalled for those interested in viewing it without a subscription or an archive link.
China is probing the US’s willingness to get involved in another conflict.
“Stupid and petty” is how international bullies operate. Pointless violence is how immature people express their “strength”.
All of the maritime issues have been caused by China attempting to claim the entire South China Sea as their private property, in defiance of international agreements about national coastal waters. All of those issues were provoked by China trying to exert control over coastal waters that are rightfully the property of other nations, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. China is a bad neighbor.
China is a bad neighbour, and fuck the CCP. But all the nations around the SCS have ridiculous claims of them controling huge swathes of water way outside their coastal waters. China is just by far the most aggressive about it.
Considering that this particular incident happened near the Second Thomas Shoal:
which is awfully close to Philippine territory and nowhere near China, I find your “but-what-about” attempt here specious and shallow.