“Firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking manoeuvres, PRC [China’s] ships interfered with the Philippines’ lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardised the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew,” the department said in a statement.

China ignores an international arbitration court’s ruling that its claim to almost the entire South China Sea is ill-founded.

In April, a BBC team aboard a PCG ship witnessed Chinese harassment at first hand.