By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-06 03:26:29 | Updated at 2025-03-06 09:05:19
5 hours ago
The Philippines and its security allies would take measures to counter any attempt by China to impose an air defence zone or restrict flights over the South China Sea, Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Wednesday, following confrontations between Chinese aircraft and those of his country, Australia and the US.
Teodoro said in an interview that China’s increasing aggression in the disputed waters was now considered the greatest threat to the national security of the Philippines and should also be regarded as a global threat because it could choke a trade route crucial for global supply chains.
“The greatest external threat actually is Chinese aggression, Chinese expansionism and the attempt by China to change the international law through the use of force or acquiescence … or its attempt to reshape the world order to one that it controls,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction by Chinese officials.
Confrontations over the strategic waterway, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety, have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coastguard and navy forces in the last two years. The long-seething territorial stand-offs over the hotly disputed shoals also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Recent brushes involving Chinese military aircraft firing warning flares or flying dangerously close to drive away US, Australian and Philippine patrol aircraft have set off fresh alarms.
