Asia - Pacific

Philippines tells China to halt ‘aggressive behavior’ for Manila to return US missiles

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urges Beijing to stop harassing Filipino fishermen, ramming boats, and using water cannons

Saadet Gokce  | 31.01.2025 - Update : 31.01.2025
Philippines tells China to halt ‘aggressive behavior’ for Manila to return US missiles

ISTANBUL

The Philippines will return the Typhon missile system to the US if China ends its “aggressive behavior,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said.

“Let’s make a deal with China: stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and let them make a living, stop ramming our boats, stop water cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behavior, and we’ll return the Typhon missiles,” Marcos said on Thursday, according to a statement from the Philippines’ Presidential Communications Office.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last month that Manila’s acquisition of the Typhon missile system would “fuel tensions” in the region and urged the Philippines to “quickly pull out the Typhon missile system.”

Separately, Manila on Thursday announced the arrest of five more Chinese citizens for allegedly spying on the Philippines’ coast guard and navy.

According to the National Bureau of Investigation, the five were apprehended following the Jan. 17 arrest of another Chinese national, Deng Yuanqing, who was detained on suspicion of espionage alongside two Filipino nationals.

The bureau said the five Chinese nationals “are believed to have engaged in aerial reconnaissance via drone operations, collecting data from the Philippines’ naval assets, among other activities.”

Tensions between Beijing and Manila have escalated in recent months over the South China Sea, a 3.5 million-square-kilometer (1.35 million-square-mile) region through which an estimated $11.3 billion in global trade passes annually, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, overlapping the territorial waters of several countries, including the Philippines.

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.