China and the Philippines have blamed each other for an incident that Manila said damaged a Philippine vessel close to hotly contested islands in the South China Sea. China stakes a claim over the vast majority of the South China Sea, contested by several countries, including the Philippines. A 2016 ruling in The Hague dismissed China's historic claim to the areas in its so-called nine-dash line, which Beijing refused to accept. Tensions routinely flare between Beijing and Manila at sea in the