China on Sunday hit back at the US for expanding military access in the Philippines, saying that Washington was trying to “encircle and contain” Beijing, and is “driving a wedge” between the two Asian nations.
The Chinese embassy said the US was moving to “secure its hegemony and selfish geopolitical interests.”
Involving the Philippines “will seriously harm” the nation’s interest and endanger regional peace and stability, the embassy said in a statement responding to a recent interview with the US ambassador in Manila.
Photo: Reuters
The Philippines last month gave the US access to four more military bases under the countries’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, with some of the sites believed to be in provinces near Taiwan. The 2014 pact allows the US to rotate its troops for prolonged stays as well as build and operate facilities on Philippine bases.
“The US military has been coming all the way from the other side of the Pacific to stir up trouble in the South China Sea and ganging up with its allies from other parts of the world to flex muscle,” the Chinese statement said. “By doing these, the US has not only heightened tension, driven wedge between China and Philippines, but has also disturbed and upset the joint effort of countries in this region to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
Manila under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has been ramping up the rhetoric against Beijing on a territorial dispute. At the same time, it plans to restart patrols with the US in disputed waters and expand military exercises with US troops.
Marcos’ administration has filed at least 77 diplomatic protests against China over “alleged” contraventions in the South China Sea since it started in June last year. That was almost one-fifth of the 388 filings made by his predecessor, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who pivoted the Philippines’ foreign policy toward China during his six-year tenure.
“Now that China and the Philippines, among other countries of the region, are at a critical juncture of post-COVID recovery, we should keep to the right track of maintaining good-neighborliness and attaining mutual benefit rather than getting distracted by forces who are fanning the flame and driving a wedge between us,” China’s statement said.
The US has said its so-called “freedom of navigation operations” follow international law.
The Chinese embassy statement echoed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) remarks last week, where he said Beijing is grappling with “comprehensive containment and suppression by Western countries led by the US.”
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) has also warned of moves to “contain and suppress China in all respects.”
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion