China has blocked four Philippine vessels that attempted to “intrude into the territorial waters” of the disputed Scarborough Shoal on Wednesday, the country’s coastguard said.

China's Coast Guard said on Tuesday that four Philippine ships had attempted to enter China's territorial waters around a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. Liu Dejun, a coast guard spokesperson,

Tensions flared once again in the South China Sea this week as the coast guards of China and the Philippines offered conflicting accounts of a maritime confrontation near the contested Scarborough Shoal.