Over the past two years, an increasingly confident and belligerent China has thrust its South China Sea aggression into overdrive, fixating on the Philippines as its primary target. Manila now faces what amounts to a large-scale maritime occupation of its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone by a hostile imperial power.

Washington and Beijing are talking more regularly to avoid a conflict in the South China Sea despite their “contentious and competitive” relationship, the United States ambassador to China has told the BBC.

“Our militaries are operating in very close proximity to one another in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait. You don’t want to send the wrong signal,” Nicholas Burns said in an interview in Beijing earlier this week.

Maritime disputes across the vast South China Sea have ratcheted up in recent years as an increasingly assertive China militarizes disputed islands and confronts its regional rivals over their competing claims in the strategically important and resource-rich waterway.

Bracketed by China and several Southeast Asian nations, parts of the vital economic passage are claimed by multiple governments, with Beijing asserting ownership over almost all of the waterway in defiance of an international court ruling.

The White House condemned China on Monday over what the Philippines called an "intentional high-speed ramming" by the Chinese Coast Guard of one of its resupply ships in the South China Sea. One Filipino sailor was seriously wounded in the collision, the Philippine military said.

A Philippine navy sailor suffered "serious injury" after what the country's military called on Tuesday "intentional-high speed ramming" by the Chinese coast guard during a resupply mission in the South China Sea.

The Philippine military said in a statement the Chinese coast guard's "continued aggressive behavior and unprofessional conduct towards a legitimate humanitarian mission is unacceptable."

China and the Philippines have accused each other of being at fault for Monday's collision near a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.

The Philippine military said on Monday that one of its sailors suffered a “serious injury” when a Chinese Coast Guard vessel conducted an “intentional high-speed ramming” attack against a Philippine supply ship in the South China Sea.

The Philippine ship was attempting to deliver supplies to a tiny military outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal, constructed from the hulk of a ship called the BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately run aground in 1999, when a Chinese coast guard vessel rammed it.

The world spent more on military costs and weapons in 2023 than it had in 35 years, driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the threat of an expanded Russian invasion, according to an independent analysis released on Monday.

Global military expenditure grew 7% to $2.43 trillion in 2023, the steepest annual rise since 2009 as international peace and security deteriorated, a leading think-tank said on Monday,

The Stockholm International Peace Research InstitNATO spending target ute (SIPRI) said in a statement the United States, China and Russia were the top spenders in 2023.

Global military expenditure soared to its highest level in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as war and rumors of war drove spending across the world, researchers said Monday.

The United States, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia were respectively the top five spenders overall.

AFP reports military spending rose across the globe with Europe, the Middle East and Asia leading the way in boosting defence outlays, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).