Two Chinese ships collided in the South China Sea Monday while one ship was chasing a Philippines Coast Guard vessel. Both sides claim the Scarborough Shoal.

The Philippines said it’s “seriously concerned” with the “dangerous maneuvers” of Chinese vessels this week and called out Beijing for its “unlawful interference” with a routine humanitarian operation.

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.