China says Philippines sent supplies to disputed shoal

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China says Philippines sent supplies to disputed shoal

BEIJING (Reuters) -China said on Friday the Philippines had sent supplies to a beached warship on Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.

In a separate statement, the Phlippine Coast Guard said it had rotated personnel staffing the Sierra Madre and sent supplies to the vessel.

China’s Coast Guard said the supply run had proceeded “with permission” to what it considers an “illegally” beached ship. The Philippine Coast Guard had no immediate response to China’s claim, which it has previously made, that it had allowed the mission to proceed.

China and the Philippines have traded barbs for months over manoeuvres at the Second Thomas Shoal, an atoll within Manila’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.

“It is hoped the Philippines will honour its commitments, work with China in the same direction, and jointly manage the maritime situation,” Liu Dejun, a spokesman for China’s Coast Guard said in a statement about Thursday’s re-supply run by the Philippines.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.

(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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