A Filipino fishing boat captain protested on Tuesday the Chinese coast guard’s aggression in the disputed South China Sea, where he asserted that Chinese officers drove him and his men away from a disputed shoal and ordered them to dump their catch in the sea.

The face-to-face confrontation on Jan. 12, which Joely Saligan and his men reported to Manila’s coast guard after returning from the voyage, is testing efforts by China and the Philippines to deescalate tensions around a potential Asian flashpoint.

At a Jan. 17 meeting in Shanghai, Beijing and Manila agreed to take steps to ease tensions after a year of high-seas confrontations between their ships in one of the world’s busiest seas. The hostilities have sparked fears of a major armed conflict that could involve Washington, Manila’s longtime treaty ally.

The fishermen, led by Saligan, reported to the Philippine coast guard that Chinese coast guard personnel drove them away from the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines and ordered them to dump their catch of fish and seashells.