China's military says it drove away Philippine aircraft near Spratly Islands

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A Philippine Air Force FA-50 lands during the Bilateral Air Contingent Exchange-Philippines (BACE-P) at Cesar Basa Air Base, Philippines, Jan. 21, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Anthony Small via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

BEIJING (Reuters) -     China's military said it warned and drove away three Philippine aircraft that "illegally intruded" into the airspace near the Spratly Islands on Thursday.

There was no immediate comment from the Philippine embassy in Beijing on the Chinese military's statement issued on Friday.

China's Southern Theatre Command accused the Philippine side of attempting to "peddle its illegal claims" through provocation, and warned that the "clumsy manoeuvre is doomed to failure".

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a vital waterway for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, putting it at odds with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

A 2016 arbitration ruling invalidated China's expansive claim but Beijing does not recognise the decision.

On Thursday, the Philippines said its coast guard and fisheries bureau had jointly carried out a maritime domain awareness flight over the Kalayaan Islands, the Philippine name for Spratly Islands.

The mission was to assert the Philippines' sovereignty, sovereign rights, and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, it said. More than 50 Chinese maritime militia vessels and a Chinese coast guard ship were spotted during the exercise.

It was not immediately clear if that mission, which deployed two aircraft, was the one Chinese military said it responded to.

The latest confrontation comes after Philippine coast guard accused the Chinese navy of performing dangerous flight manoeuvres earlier this week when it flew close to a government aircraft patrolling the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing disputed that account.

 (Reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing and Mikhail Flores in Manila; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.)