The weekend incidents came about two weeks after the Philippines said a China Coast Guard ship rammed one of its fisheries department boats in another area of the Spratlys. (EPA Images pic)

BEIJING: Beijing warned Manila on Monday against "provocative acts" in the disputed South China Sea, accusing a Philippine aircraft of an airspace violation over the weekend.

Beijing claims most of the sea, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, and confrontations have occurred regularly.

The Philippine armed forces said a Chinese fighter jet had interfered with a "routine military patrol" carried out by a Cessna 208 turboprop near the Scarborough Shoal on Saturday.

The Chinese military's Southern Theatre Command said that the Philippine plane had "illegally intruded into the territorial airspace over China's Huangyan Dao" – Beijing's name for the disputed shoal.