2 US warships deployed off Scarborough Shoal days after Chinese collision
USS Higgins. Photo from the Philippine Coast Guard.
[Updated Aug. 13, 2025, 5:47 p.m.]
MANILA, Philippines — Two United States warships were deployed off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal on Wednesday, days after the collision of Chinese ships there.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said USS Higgins (DDG-76) and USS Cincinnati (LCS-20) were monitored during a maritime domain awareness flight at a distance of 30 nautical miles away from Panatag Shoal.
Earlier, the People’s Liberation Army-Southern Theater Command “mobilized forces to monitor, issue warnings and expel” the destroyer USS Higgins, its spokesperson Senior Captain He Tiecheng was quoted as saying in a Global Times report.
However, Tarriela cast doubt on the Chinese military’s version of events.
“I don’t think that would be accurate,” Tarriela said, noting that the US warships were just conducting freedom of navigation operations.
“The Philippine government is supportive of the freedom of navigation because this is a direct challenge to the illegal nine-dash line claim of the People’s Republic of China,” he also said, referring to the claim—now updated to 10-dash-line—which was already effectively dismissed by a landmark international ruling.
Exclusion zone enforcement
China, however, rejects the freedom of navigation right in the vicinity of Panatag Shoal, deeming it part of its territorial waters.
Instead, China pushes what experts termed as “exclusion zone enforcement” in Panatag Shoal, flouting the 2016 arbitral ruling that declared the area a traditional fishing ground for the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.
The 2016 Arbitral Award made the ruling after the case filed by former President Benigno S. Aquino against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013, a year after the tense standoff at Panatag Shoal.
Since the effective takeover of the Chinese in 2012, at least two CCG ships have been stationed near the shoal’s lagoon at all times, local authorities say, preventing the PCG and Filipino fishers from approaching.
READ: Chinese-ships-collide-
‘Significant escalation’
But in this case, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. noted that this is the first time the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) actively participated in frustrating Filipino ships’ maritime mission there.
This event already marked a “significant escalation” of the situation, according to Denny Roy, a senior fellow of the Hawaii-based think tank East-West Center.
“In my view, the Chinese employing a destroyer to threaten to ram a Philippine vessel is already a significant escalation,” Roy told Inquirer in an email interview.
“If the situation were reversed and a Philippine Navy ship were harassing a Chinese fishing boat, the Chinese side would be incensed,” he added.
On Monday, the PLA-N warship with hull number 164 collided with the China Coast Guard (CCG) with hull number 3104, which was chasing BRP Suluan at the time.
Both ships sustained damage, with CCG-3104’s forecastle badly crushed, while BRP Suluan managed to evade the maneuver.
Tarriela said there were at least four personnel at the front of the CCG-3104, but they were not seen after the CCG ship’s collision with the PLA-N warship.
READ: 3 armed China Coast Guard ships have left Batanes waters – monitor
US response to warship ‘escalation’?
Roy said, “It’s reasonable to think” that the deployment of US warships was a response to the Chinese sending a naval warship to join in the aggressive maneuvering in the recent incident.
“The Chinese might have thought the US would not react because bilateral trade negotiations are in progress,” Roy pointed out, with both sides suspending tariff hikes against each others’ goods.
Manila and Washington are bound with the Mutual Defense Treaty, which calls for each other’s defense in case of an armed attack.
The country is also part of the “first island chain”, which experts view as Washington’s first line of defense against Beijing’s expansion in the Pacific.
“The US message to Beijing seems to be: we see you testing us, and here’s your answer,” Roy said. /mr
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