China rescues 17 Filipino sailors in South China Sea shipwreck, 4 still missing

Chinese rescue teams retrieved 17 Filipino crew members from a shipwreck in the South China Sea, authorities said on Friday.

Fifteen of those rescued were in stable condition, while two were found dead. Four others remained missing as of Friday evening.

At 00:46 on Friday, the Sansha maritime search and rescue branch received a report from the Hainan provincial maritime search and rescue center, which said a Singapore-registered cargo ship "DEVON BAY", en route from the Philippines to south China's Guangdong Province, had lost contact in waters about 55 nautical miles northwest of China's Huangyan Dao, with 21 Filipino crew members on board.

According to the provincial center, the last contact with the ship was at 21:26 on Thursday, when the ship crew reported that the hull had tilted severely and water was flooding in. Contact was lost after that, while the ship's emergency wireless position indicator later sent out an alarm signal.

Upon receiving the report, the Sansha maritime search and rescue branch immediately launched a multi-agency international rescue operation.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command sent military aircraft to conduct search operations over the waters where the accident occurred. Two nearby China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels also joined the rescue mission, along with teams from the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport.

Multiple international commercial vessels, including ships registered in Liberia, Panama and Japan, also joined the search operation.

At 04:28 on Friday, CCG vessels found and rescued four crew members from a lifeboat. Severe sea conditions, with high winds and rough waves, posed significant challenges to the rescue operation. The search and rescue effort is still ongoing, authorities said.

The 15 Filipino sailors in stable condition have received medical treatment and are under proper care aboard a Chinese vessel, according to the CCG.

"I really feel very safe in China Coast Guard [vessel], taking me from water to the accommodation. I really feel safe. And at nighttime, I seen (saw) a Coast Guard [vessel] that was moving around the area, and that is why at that time, I am (was) telling myself that 'No, I will not die at this time, I will survive,'" said one of the rescued sailors.

League of Arab States (LAS) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said the Arab world remains committed to a non-aligned foreign policy amid shifting global power dynamics.

In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) that aired on Friday, Aboul-Gheit, who has visited China six times, said non-alignment has long guided the Arab League's diplomatic stance, tracing back to its early days.

"We adopted that the Arab League is composed of 22 countries. But not all of them were independent in 1945, only seven. The seven agreed on a certain path that was embracing non-alignment. And since the establishment of the movement, the non-aligned movement in 1961, or let's say, since the Bandung Summit in 1955 in Indonesia, the Arab League was following non-alignment between the Western world and the Soviet bloc," said the secretary-general.