Before I get into the main topic, I need to give a brief background to this episode. As everyone knows, China and the Philippines are at a stalemate over the South China Sea issue, and the situation in the South China Sea is highly tense and China-Philippines relations continue to deteriorate under all kinds of provocations by the Philippine side. In this context, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced that the two countries jointly chaired the ninth meeting of the China-Philippines Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea issue.
According to the content of the meeting, both sides agreed that maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea is in the interests of both sides and is also the common goal of regional countries, and agreed to continue to maintain dialogue and consultation through BCM and other mechanisms to manage conflicts and differences. Through the diplomatic announcement, we can see that the Philippine side has released some positive signals, but it is interesting that in this context, a rumor suddenly spreads and makes a lot of noise.
What rumors? Philippine Senator Imay Marcos, the sister of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., claimed that China has listed 25 potential targets against the Philippines and plans to use hypersonic missiles to attack these targets.
Based on this, mainland Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China adheres to the path of peaceful development, pursues a defensive national defense policy, and does not pose a threat to any country.
Judging from the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we can find that the remarks of the sister of the Philippine president are purely false rumors. The question is, in the context of the Sino-Philippine negotiations on the South China Sea, what did Ime Marcos, the sister of the Philippine president and an official of the Philippine Congress, mean by saying this? Do you want China and the Philippines to ease relations? Or is there another purpose? This series of problems has to be doubted.
In fact, there is one more thing besides this rumor. In response to the collision between Chinese and Philippine ships at Ren'ai Jiao in the South China Sea, the Philippine military also demanded compensation of about $1 million from China. The Philippine military stressed that this is only the loss of property, not including the loss of Filipino crews.
In response to the unreasonable demands of the Philippine side, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning directly sent a sentence that the Philippines had made a provocation to illegally transport and replenish supplies first, and that China's rights protection and law enforcement were legitimate and legitimate, so the Philippines should bear the consequences for its infringement. Seeing this scene, I believe some people have already wondered, why does the other side frequently engage in these "moths" when it is clear that the Philippine side intends to consult and negotiate with China on the South China Sea issue?
There is only one explanation for the Philippine approach, and that is that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is still unwilling. These actions are more like an explanation to the hardliners in the Philippines and to the United States, showing that the Marcos Jr. administration has not forgotten the "humiliation" brought by China to the Philippines. The reason why sending people to negotiate with China is just a helpless move, or a delaying tactic, and when the time is ripe, the Philippines is bound to show its fangs again. In this regard, we must not relax our "education" of Marcos Jr.