President Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, Lee Lipton, shared a video on social media Friday of a China Coast Guard vessel reportedly “ramming” into a Philippine vessel.
Lipton wrote: “We STRONGLY CONDEMN the China Coast Guard’s DELIBERATE RAMMING of the Philippine BFAR vessel near Bombay Shoal, just 54 miles off the coast of Palawan. We commend the sustained professionalism of our Philippine Allies in the face of this dangerous, destabilizing act.” Philippine officials reported that the vessel was damaged but that no crew members were injured.
[NOTE: BFAR is the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, an official agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Agriculture.]
We STRONGLY CONDEMN the China Coast Guard’s DELIBERATE RAMMING of the Philippine BFAR vessel near Bombay Shoal, just 54 miles off the coast of Palawan. We commend the sustained professionalism of our Philippine Allies in the face of this dangerous, destabilizing act. pic.twitter.com/Tt8geTCo5I
— U.S. Ambassador Lee Lipton (@USAmbPH) September 18, 2026
Jay Tarriela, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson, wrote on social media: “Let us be clear about what this vessel was doing: it was bringing fuel to Filipino fishermen so they can keep fishing in our own waters and keep food on Filipino tables. The China Coast Guard deliberately rammed a civilian government vessel on a humanitarian and livelihood mission, endangering the lives of its Filipino crew. These actions are a blatant violation of the 1972 COLREGs, the 2016 Arbitral Award, and UNCLOS. No amount of ramming or dangerous maneuvering will change the fact that these waters belong to the Filipino people.”
[NOTE: The Philippines filed a complaint in 2013 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to challenge China’s maritime claims to sovereignty over waters within a “nine-dash line” that appears on official Chinese maps. The tribunal hearing the complaint ruled in 2016 that China violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights by interfering with fishing and oil exploration and building artificial islands in Manila’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).]
The China Military Bugle reported a different story: “A vessel of the China Coast Guard (CCG) on Friday conducted a law enforcement operation in waters near Xianbin Jiao, part of China’s Nansha Qundao, according to CCG spokesperson Jiang Lue.”
It added: “A Philippine vessel ignored warnings from the Chinese side, deliberately changed course and suddenly accelerated across the bow of the Chinese coast guard vessel, resulting in a collision, Jiang said. The spokesperson stressed that the Philippine side’s actions seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations and endangered the safety of Chinese coast guard vessels and personnel, while the Chinese vessel’s operations were professional, proper and lawful. ‘The responsibility lies with the Philippine side,’Jiang said.”
Several X users replied to Lipton’s post with cynicism. As one critic wrote: “What a freaking lie. @POTUS is about to kiss Xi’s [expletive] & surrender to him. @realDonaldTrump is in full appeasement/surrender mode w Iran, Putin, Xi. I haven’t seen such weakness since Biden w Afghanistan.”
