The back and forth over Sandy Cay is the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute over territory in the hotly contested South China Sea.

China and the Philippines have each unfurled their national flags on tiny sandbars in the South China Sea, staking competing sovereignty claims in strategic waters seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflict.

Both countries have planted flags on a collection of sand bars, extending the clash over the area between Beijing and Manila, a U.S. ally