If China wants the United States’ Typhon missile system out from “this part of the world,” all it has to do is stop harassing Filipinos in the West Philippines Sea, said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thurday, January 30.
Marcos was asked two things during the chance interview — the apprehension of alleged Chinese spies in the country and Beijing’s reaction to the continued stay of the typhon missile launchers on Philippine soil. The President evaded the first part of the question but did not hold back in answering the second.
“I don’t understand their comments on the Typhon Missile System. We don’t make any comments on their missile system, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have,” said Marcos on the sidelines of a visit to the Mactan Airport in Cebu province.
Marcos then offered a quick fix to Beijing’s problem — quit claiming the West Philippine Sea as yours, and the Typhon leaves the Philippines.
“Let’s make a deal with China. Stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and let them have a living, stop ramming our boats, stop water cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behavior, and I’ll return the Typhon missiles. Itigil nila ‘yung ginagawa nila, ibabalik ko lahat ‘yan (If they stop what they are doing, I’ll return the Typhon to the US),” said Marcos.
China’s arsenal
China, in recent years, has been doubling down in stengthening its military capabilities — by building more military ships for its navy and coast guard, as well as increasing its arsenal of missiles. According to a December 2024 report from the Pentagon, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), continued its “rapid nuclear expansion” in 2023.
The US estimates that China had more than 600 nuclear warheads in its stockpile by the middle of 2024, and is likely to grow that stockpile to 1,000 by 2030, “much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels.”
The same Pentagon report flagged China’s “growing arsenals of advanced and longer-range conventional missile systems” that “improve its readiness for long-range precision strikes on US and allied forces and bases throughout much of the Indo-Pacific.”
The US first brought the Typhon missile system to the Philippines in 2024 for an army-to-army military exercise, as well as the flagship Balikatan joint military exercise. It has remained in the Philippines since, and was recently moved to a new location in the country, according to a Reuters report.
China has called on the Philippines to remove the missile system, accusing Manila of “creating tensions and antagonism in the region and inciting geopolitical confrontation and an arms race.”
“We once again call on the Philippines to heed the call from regional countries and their peoples, correct the wrongdoing as soon as possible, quickly pull out the Typhon missile system as publicly pledged, and stop going further down the wrong path,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on January 25.
Both Philippine and US officials had earlier said that the Typhon missile system was expected to be pulled out of the Philippines by September 2024 but has remained on Philippine soil, as Filipinos soldiers continue training on the intermediate range missile system. The Typhon will also be used during a Philippine army unilateral exercise in February 2024.
China in the West Philippine Sea
Tighter security and defense ties between the Philippines and its only treaty-ally, the US, have only intensified in recent years — partly in response to a China that’s become more aggressive in waters where the Philippines has sovereign rights.
All of the incidents that Marcos mentioned have happened under his presidency. The laser-pointing incident prompted Marcos himself to summon Chinese ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian, just a month after his first and, thus far, only state visit to Beijing in January 2023.
Certain areas of the West Philippine Sea are flashpoints for tensions between the two countries — the worst among them at one point was Ayungin or Second Thomas Shoal, where the rusting BRP Sierra Madre serves as a military outpost. In June 2024, China Coast Guard (CCG) personnel brandished bladed weapons against elite Philippine soldiers already moored beside the Sierra Madre.
The CCG rammed military boats, causing one soldier to lose his thumb. The CCG later boarded and destoyed the equipment of the Navy.
In the aftermath of that incident, the Philippines and China reached a “provisional understanding” that ensures rotation and resupply missions to the shoal take place without incident. Thus far, the five missions to Ayungin Shoal since the deal was made have been peaceful. Details of the agreement, however, have not been made public.
Marcos and his officials, including Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, had said repeatedly that tensions in the South China Sea shouldn’t be defining the bilateral relationship between the two Asian countries. But as tensions at sea continue to rise, and rhetoric again picks up, it can only be even more difficult to keep bilateral ties strong. – Rappler.com