It’s hard to call the collision of two multi-thousand-ton military ships “fortunate,” but that’s exactly what analysts are saying about the incident in the South China Sea this week that left a China Coast Guard ship with a heavily damaged bow after it hit a People’s Liberation Army Navy guided-missile destroyer.

The ships collided on 11 August 2025 while pursuing a Philippine vessel near Scarborough Shoal, causing substantial damage and escalating tensions in the disputed South China Sea