China fired a water cannon at a Philippine government fisheries vessel near Scarborough Shoal on Thursday, marking another violent escalation in contested waters even as Beijing and Washington announced progress on tariff reductions covering $30 billion in trade. The blast scored an indirect hit on the vessel, which the Philippine coast guard said was engaged in a "purely humanitarian undertaking."
The dual developments—economic cooperation alongside military aggression—underscored the complex and often contradictory dynamics shaping Asia-Pacific security as top diplomats gathered in Manila for the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Tariff Framework Takes Shape
Chinese commerce ministry official Meng Huating said Beijing was widely soliciting opinions from domestic enterprises, business associations, local governments and U.S. business associations on the tariff-reduction arrangements. The United States was similarly seeking public opinions on tariff cuts, he added. China and the U.S. agreed this year to set up a Board of Trade after reaching a trade truce late last year to halt their tariff war. China's commerce ministry said in May that agricultural products would be part of the tariff-cut framework.
Teams from both sides have maintained close communication about the tariff-reduction framework and the structure, functions and operating model of their Board of Trade, the ministry said. Beijing and Washington would agree on specific arrangements as soon as possible and move ahead with implementation to expand bilateral trade, according to the announcement.
Diplomats Confront 'Profound Uncertainty'
Top diplomats from Asia, Europe and North America gathered in Manila for the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum, where ministers were expected to call for a peaceful settlement of renewed and intensifying hostilities in the Middle East. The forum was attended by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and top officials from Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, India, Japan and others.
Maria Theresa Lazaro, the foreign secretary of the Philippines, which is chairing the grouping, said in opening remarks, "We convene against the backdrop of profound geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainty." She added, "These issues transcend borders and underscore the reality that no nation can address today's complex security environment alone."
China's Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying told a meeting of officials from ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea that the world had entered a "new period of turbulence and transformation" and warned of an urgent need for peace and stability. Rubio said a day earlier that the United States wanted a diplomatic solution in the Middle East, but Tehran wasn't playing ball.
Russia-U.S. Talks Address Ukraine
Rubio held talks with Lavrov for just under an hour. Russia's foreign ministry said the discussion ranged over the Ukraine war and normalisation of U.S.-Russia ties. Lavrov "reaffirmed Russia's readiness for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict," and told Rubio that Moscow remained committed to proposals put forward by the leaders of both nations. The U.S. State Department said bilateral relations and "the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war" figured in the discussions.
Violence in Contested Waters
The South China Sea was another focal point in Manila. Rubio described China's actions there as "disturbing" and said, "The whole world saw it, and it's disturbing." He added, "We have a role, and we're not going to abandon our allies. We've made that abundantly clear."
China said it tracked and drove away two Philippine vessels it accused of having "intruded into" waters near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which it calls Huangyan Dao, despite a warning. China's Coast Guard said, "We urge the Philippines to immediately cease its infringing and provocative actions," and said the measures it took, including tracking, monitoring and interception, were "standard, professional and lawful."
The Philippines and China remain locked in a territorial dispute despite a 2016 arbitral ruling—marking its 10th anniversary this year—that found China's claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis, a ruling China rejects.
The Philippines regularly sends supplies to a small number of soldiers aboard the World War Two-era warship BRP Sierra Madre, which it grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to assert its claims. A Filipino sailor was injured on Monday at Second Thomas Shoal after being struck with a baton by Chinese Coast Guard personnel. A violent confrontation there in June 2024, marking its second anniversary last month, where a Filipino sailor lost a finger, prompted the Philippines and China to reach a provisional arrangement on resupply missions.
Manila's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the arrangement neither recognises any foreign jurisdiction nor requires the Philippines to ask China for permission to carry out resupply missions. China's coast guard engaged in a brief altercation with Philippine navy personnel on Monday near a disputed reef in Manila's exclusive economic zone, prompting the countries to summon each other's ambassadors.
Regional Tensions Deepen
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi didn't attend Thursday's forum in Manila and was due to join a regional meeting in Kyrgyzstan. He told ASEAN counterparts on Wednesday the South China Sea was "our common home," where peace and stability rested in the hands of all. He said regional countries should "resist the incitement of foreign forces, oppose individual countries using the sea to make trouble," according to an official statement.
Beijing began two days of live-fire drills in parts of the Taiwan Strait near the shores of its southeastern province of Fujian on Thursday, a day after Wang and Rubio held talks in Manila on a range of issues including Taiwan.
Why This Matters:
The water cannon attack on a Filipino humanitarian vessel highlights the human cost of China's territorial assertions, which continue despite a decade-old international ruling that found its claims baseless. Filipino sailors have been injured, maimed, and now fired upon while conducting lawful operations in their own exclusive economic zone. The violence persists even as Beijing pursues economic cooperation with Washington, revealing how trade agreements don't necessarily constrain aggressive behavior that threatens regional stability. For smaller nations like the Philippines, the gap between international law and enforcement remains stark—the 2016 arbitral ruling carries no weight without multilateral mechanisms to uphold it. The provisional arrangement reached after last year's finger-severing incident hasn't prevented new confrontations, suggesting that without stronger collective action and institutional accountability, fishermen and coast guard personnel will continue bearing the physical burden of unresolved territorial disputes. The ASEAN forum's call for nations to work together reflects the reality that individual countries can't counter coercion alone.