BEIJING (AP) — China says six Filipinos landed on a tiny outcropping that both countries claim in the South China Sea, days after photos emerged of Chinese coast guard officers displaying a Chinese flag on the same group of sandbars.

The Philippine team, using four motorised rubber boats, disembarked at Pag-asa Cay 1, Cay 2 and Cay 3 before sunrise. Their success was evidence that China’s earlier claims of control were misleading, according to Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesman for the Philippine Coast Guard on South China Sea issues.

China and the Philippines have each unfurled their national flags on tiny sandbars in the South China Sea, staking competing sovereignty claims in strategic waters seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflict.