MANILA — One sentence from Ambassador Jing Quan, “If we want to use force, we may easily win,” got China’s envoy to the Philippines summoned on Monday. Beijing replied the same day, pointing to “certain Philippine individuals.”
Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro told Jing his statement was “provocative and unacceptable, and does not contribute to creating understanding,” according to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs account relayed by Anadolu Agency. The department said Manila “reserves the right to take further diplomatic action as it deems necessary.”
Jing spoke on Thursday, October 15, on the sidelines of an event in Manila. He was answering Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who had called China a “troublemaker” in the region, a label Jing dismissed as “nonsense.” Then came the sentence about force, and its qualifier: “But no, we will not choose force, and we love peace.”
The row turns on which half of that exchange counts. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday that the statement “sounds very much like a threat,” Anadolu Agency reported. After Monday’s meeting, the Chinese Embassy said Jing accused Philippine officials of taking his words out of context, quoting him as saying that “despite our capacity, we don’t have the intention to use force.” The embassy added that bilateral relations are “at a very sensitive and complicated juncture.”
In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning was asked about the summons at Monday’s briefing. “To improve and develop China-Philippines relations serves the interest of both sides,” she said, before turning to Manila: “We firmly oppose certain Philippine individuals maliciously lashing out at China and hurting bilateral ties.” The Philippine side, she said, “should rein in such irresponsible behavior of those politicians,” according to the ministry’s transcript.
Tempers were already short. On Saturday the embassy answered Senator JV Ejercito on X with “This senator is bluffing again,” according to the same Anadolu report, and it protested what it called attacks by Philippine officials, including calls to declare Jing persona non grata. The two countries have repeatedly clashed over competing South China Sea claims; TEH reported in July that China summoned the Philippine ambassador in Beijing after a clash at Second Thomas Shoal.
What is missing is the record. TEH could not open the department’s own text of Monday’s meeting, so the Philippine side’s wording here comes through Anadolu Agency, and no transcript of Jing’s Thursday remarks has been reviewed. The account TEH has seen does not say what “further diplomatic action” the department has in mind, or what would trigger it.
