Beijing’s spin about its maritime militia’s ramming of a Filipino fishing boat follows the script. In retreat the latter inadvertently hit fishing boat Gem-Ver 1, throwing 22 Filipino crewmen into the water. Satellite video of that night shows about two-dozen vessels far apart in that grid of the Recto Bank, 80 miles from Palawan; there was no swarming of boats. Most important was that Yuemaobinyu 42212 was poaching in Recto Bank, well within the Philippines 200-mile exclusive economic zone. In Vietnam’s Paracel Islands, Chinese maritime militia also routinely ram Vietnamese fishing boats, reminds Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio Carpio.

Source: Philippine Star June 18, 2019 16:01 UTC