Chinese ambassador denies threatening Philippines after saying a war may prove easy to win

Beijing’s ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan has denied making threats after he was summoned over his recent comments that China could “easily win” a war between the two countries.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro met Jing on Monday to express “serious concern and strong objections” over his “provocative and unacceptable” language.

Lazaro added that he had aggravated an already sensitive situation and undermined efforts to build mutual understanding between the two countries, according to the Philippine foreign ministry, which said he had “conveyed a threat”.

On Thursday, Jing told a forum in Quezon City that Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro’s description of China as a regional “troublemaker” was “nonsense”.

He added: “If we want to use force, we may easily win. But no, we will not choose force and we love peace.”

“What is a threat? ‘If you don’t follow me, I will hurt you.’ This is a threat,” Jing said in a statement issued by the Chinese embassy after the meeting.

“But my point is despite our capacity, we don’t have the intention to use force. Because we are friends and close neighbours. There is no need to resort to force.”

He said the two countries “should enhance dialogue, manage differences and deepen cooperation” and “let the good aspects prevail over bad ones”.

He also accused Teodoro and other officials of trying to “attack and smear China”.

The embassy said “no one should expect [it] to keep silent” in the face of such attacks, and urged the Philippines to stop “anti-China politicians and ill-intentioned forces from dragging our bilateral relations into the dangerous situation of confrontation”.

It also urged Manila to understand China’s position and avoid “selective quotation, over-interpretation and overreaction”.

The message echoed earlier comments by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, who said Beijing firmly opposed “certain individuals in the Philippines” who were “maliciously hyping up” the situation and undermining relations between the two countries.

She told a daily press conference that while better relations were in both sides’ interests, the Philippines should “restrain the irresponsible words and deeds of certain politicians” – an apparent reference to Teodoro, regarded as one of Beijing’s sharpest critics.

The defence minister was hit by sanctions in June that barred him and his family from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau over what Beijing described as repeated erroneous remarks about the country.

Tensions have been running high over the two countries’ competing claims in the South China Sea, where there have been regular clashes between coastguard vessels in recent years.

Beijing claims sovereignty over nearly all islands and rock features and rights to the adjacent resource-rich waters, while Manila says these disputed features lie within its exclusive economic zone. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have their own separate claims.

Jing’s comments provoked a fierce backlash among Philippine officials and legislators.

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Within hours, the Philippine foreign ministry hit out at his “poor choice of words,” saying they seemed to “convey a thinly veiled threat of the use of force, which is hardly helpful in the context of the complicated bilateral ties between the Philippines and China”.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said his comments sounded “very much to me like a threat” and were “not a very diplomatic statement”.

Several lawmakers have called for Jing to be declared persona non grata – a formal declaration he was not welcome in the Philippines that could lead to his expulsion.

They included Senator Risa Hontiveros, who demanded a formal apology and retraction from Jing. She also described his comments as “grey zone aggression in diplomatic form, meant to intimidate and coerce while stopping just short of war”.