China’s Global Times has blasted Philippine President Bongbong Marcos for his swinish pledge, issued while visiting India, that his country would have “no way” other than to join any U.S. war with China over Taiwan.
Marcos returned Aug. 7 from a five-day state visit to India, where he attended a Philippines-India Business Forum held on Thursday. Trade Secretary Cristina Roque announced that the Philippines secured 18 business agreements across various sectors, including renewable energy, infrastructure, healthcare, education, information technology, business process management, digital services and manufacturing. Marcos also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on August 5, where he secured 13 agreements in the areas of defense, science and technology, and tourism.
What concerns China is the fact that Marcos also took the opportunity to say that “If there is a confrontation over Taiwan between China and the U.S., there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it, simply because of our physical geographic location,” noting that Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is a mere 40-minute flight from Laoag, the Philippines. “If there is an all-out war, then we will be joined into it … we will have to defend our territory and our sovereignty,” he claimed. Another excuse he gave was, “We will have to go in there, or find a way to go in there and to bring our people home.” This refers to the nearly 200,000 overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.
