Wild video captures a Chinese Coast Guard ship collide with a Philippine vessel while battering it with a powerful water cannon

Official videos and other footage from media members show the latest flare-up between the two countries as China continues to defy international legal rulings on South China Sea territory and engage Philippine vessels in Manila's exclusive economic zone. The footage shows Chinese vessels firing water cannons at a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a vessel of the country's Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the BRP Bagacay and BRP Datu Bankaw, as the two vessels carried out a "Legitimate maritime patrol" near Scarborough Shoal, a contested area of the South China Sea inside the Philippine's exclusive economic zone where China forcefully exerts control. "During the patrol, the Philippine vessels encountered dangerous maneuvers and obstruction from four China Coast Guard vessels and six Chinese Maritime Militia vessels," Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said. "This damage serves as evidence of the forceful water pressure used by the China Coast Guard in their harassment of the Philippine vessels." The Telegraph's Asia correspondent Nicola Smith was aboard the Philippine Coast Guard ship Bagacay and wrote of the experience that as the Chinese ships hammered the vessel with their water cannons, "All you could hear was the thundering of the water and more frantic shouts of the crew." The video posted on X of a Chinese Coast Guard ship colliding with the Datu Bankaw while spraying it with water notably showed that the Chinese ship was "Specifically targeting the Philippine ship's navigation and communication equipment," Tom Shugart, a former US Navy officer and current adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, wrote on social media. A recent one in March saw a Chinese water cannon destroy a Philippine ship's windows and injure four sailors.