A Philippine Navy marine sustained a head wound after being struck with a baton during a physical confrontation with China Coast Guard personnel at Second Thomas Shoal (a disputed reef in the South China Sea where the Philippines maintains a small military outpost aboard a deliberately grounded warship, the BRP Sierra Madre). The Philippine military said Chinese personnel approached the vessel in an inflatable boat and reacted violently when Philippine sailors attempted to drive them off, while Beijing insisted its forces acted with restraint and that Philippine personnel struck first. The incident, which also damaged a Philippine rubber boat, carries particular weight as it occurred days before Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Manila for regional talks, and just as the ten-year anniversary of an international arbitral ruling — which found Second Thomas Shoal falls within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and rejected China's broad South China Sea claims — drew renewed attention to the long-running dispute.