China cranked up its anti-American rhetoric Friday, as its ambassador urged the Philippines to deny US troops access to its military bases if it “cares genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs (overseas Filipino workers)” in Taiwan.
Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian accused the United States of taking advantage of the situation in the Taiwan Strait to expand its military presence in the region.
Huang said the safety of the OFWs in Taiwan was not a valid excuse for allowing more US troops access to Philippine military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) because “China is the last country that wishes to see conflict over the Strait because people on both sides are Chinese.”
“Obviously, the US intends to take advantage of the new EDCA sites tointerfere in the situation across the Taiwan Strait to serve its geopolitical goals and advance its anti-China agenda at the expense of peace and development of the Philippines and the region at large,” Huang said in his message at the 8th Manila Forum that tackled handling differences between the Philippines and China on Friday.
The Chinese ambassador urged Filipinos to do some soul searching.
“To know if increased US military deployment in another country truly helps to protect the host country’s sovereignty and security, one just need to take a look at the long list of mess left behind by the scourge of American military around the world, the turmoils, divisions and devastation. Answers will not be difficult to find,” he said.
At the forum, Huang said the Philippines and China must handle their differences over the South China Sea “directly,” without the interference of others.
While “indeed, there are differences between China and the Philippines on the South China Sea issue,” Huang noted that the two countries have maintained peaceful coexistence “for over a thousand years and will continue to be so in the future.”
To settle their territorial differences, the Philippines filed a case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which ruled in Manila’s favor in 2016. But China, which refused to participate in the proceedings, rejected the ruling and claims almost all the South China Sea—even portions that are clearly in the Philippine exclusive economic zone.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez on Friday expressed hopes that China would realize that Manila and Washington only want peaceful resolution of issues, including the disputes over the South China Sea.
Romualdez stressed that the joint statement issued by the Filipino and Americans official in the 2+2 meeting merely urged China to stick to the rule of law when it comes to maritime issues.
Romualdez added that the joint statement was not directed towards China but to all incursions that “happened in the past.”
The Philippines and US were not looking for conflict with othernations, he added.
“We are hoping that our friends in China will see that as an opportunity for us to be more serious about really resolving these issues peacefully,” the ambassador told a TV interview, citing the harassment being experienced by Filipino fishermen in the country’s territorial waters at the hands of Chinese vessels.
“Our fishermen, up to this day, every single day get harassed by ships that are obviously of Chinese registry in our territorial waters. Theyhave been doing this for so many years, hundreds of years and yet we get reports almost every day of that nature,” Romualdez said.
“Clearly, our territorial waters are ours, we’ve had it all this time and now we have somebody claiming that it’s theirs,” he added.
The Philippines and the US have expressed strong objections “to the unlawful maritime claims, militarization of reclaimed features, and threatening and provocative activities in the South China Sea.”
Romualdez also said the Philippines’ defense ties with the US weremerely aimed at defending the country’s sovereignty and protecting its citizens.
In a separate interview with CNN, Romualdez said the Philippines is nolonger interested in accepting military equipment donations from the United States, which are usually only functional for a few years.
“We’ve already made a decision and that was started by President (Rodrigo) Duterte that we will no longer be interested in getting what we call excess defense articles,” he said.
In 2017, the government said it will no longer accept second-hand equipment from the United States and will only purchase new ones.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, meanwhile, said the Philippines and the United States are refocusing their attention on emergent concerns that will likely be on their common agenda for the future.
Manalo said among the issues tackled during the recently concluded 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the defense and foreign ministry officials of both sides were: climate-smart technologies and policies, climate finance, green metals, clean energy transition and de-carbonization strategies, critical infrastructure and new technologies for ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation.
“This refocusing takes into account the stakes of communities in the relationship, as well as our responsibilities with respect to climate change and environment,” the country’s top diplomat said.
“Manila and Washington agreed to reinforce the bilateral relations with a new focus on a strong long-term economic partnership that has dividends for the Philippines’ upward economic trajectory as a middle-income economy,” he added.
On Thursday night, the Naval Forces West (NFW) announced that Philippine and American ships participating in this year’s “Balikatan” joint military exercises have entered the “joint operational area” of the Puerto Princesa, Palawan-based Western Command (Wescom).
These ships were identified as the Philippine Navy’s (PN) missile frigate BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) and landing dock BRP Tarlac (LD-601), and the US Navy’s USS Makin Island (LHD-8).
The ships will meet near Dumaran Island and perform communication exercises while en route for the amphibious raid over the beach of Barangay Samariñana, Brooke’s Point all in the province of Palawan on April 14, NFW commander Commodore Alan Javier said.
He said the ships left Subic Bay, Zambales on Wednesday.