Kuala Lampur, April 9 -- The Philippine Coast Guard unveiled on Thursday its first dedicated command centre in the Spratly island chain, a flashpoint in the disputed South China Sea that has been the site of repeated confrontations with Chinese vessels.

The headquarters of a newly established coast guard district, formerly overseen from neighbouring Palawan, will cover an area of about 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 square miles).

An AFP journalist travelling to the new command centre on Pagasa Island, known as Thitu in the Philippines, saw multiple Chinese Coast Guard vessels patrolling nearby waters. The vessels issued radio warnings to the plane carrying the journalist.

Beijing claims the South China Sea in nearly its entirety, de...