Philippine defence chief rips China officials in testy exchange over disputed waters

SINGAPORE – Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro engaged in a testy back-and-forth with Chinese officials at a Singapore security forum on June 1, accusing leaders in Beijing of grabbing territory in disputed waters and repressing their own people.

During a panel at the Shangri-La Dialogue, two senior colonels in the People’s Liberation Army directed questions at Mr Teodoro, asking whether the Philippines would serve as a US proxy in Asia or adopt a friendlier approach toward China.

Mr Teodoro thanked the pair for “propaganda spiels disguised as questions”, a line that received rare applause from those in attendance.

He went on to lambast China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, saying a lack of trust in Beijing was “the biggest stumbling block” to resolving the dispute.

“That deficit of trust, which I think any rational person – or any person that is not ideologically biased, with freedom of thought and freedom of speech – will agree with,” Mr Teodoro said.

He added that he couldn’t trust a country that “represses its own people”.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has pushed back against Beijing’s sweeping claims over the strategic waterway, leading to confrontations between their ships.

Manila in May said China’s Coast Guard fired a water cannon on a state fisheries vessel conducting research in Sandy Cay in the Spratlys area.

“To envision a China-led international order, we only need to look at how they treat their much smaller neighbours in the South China Sea, which runs counter to the ‘peaceful rise’ they initially promised,” Mr Teodoro said.

China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea and backs this up with a 1947 map that shows vague dashes outlining its claims, which are disputed by the Philippines,