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.

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.

The Philippines said on Monday there was no truth to news reports that Beijing has seized control of a disputed reef in the South China Sea, after its personnel landed on the unoccupied sandbars and found no Chinese presence there.