Beijing: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday lodged serious protests with the Philippines over its President Ferdinand Marcos' recent remarks concerning Taiwan. The Chinese reaction came after Marcos had stated that "if there is a confrontation over Taiwan between China and the United States, there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it, simply because of our physical geographic location", reported China's Xinhua news agency.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the ministry stressed that "near geographic location" and "a large amount of Filipinos in Taiwan" should not be used as pretexts to interfere in the internal and sovereign affairs of other countries. It added that these claims not only contravene international law and the ASEAN Charter, but also harm regional peace and stability and the fundamental interests of its own people.
"It has kept making wrong and provocative remarks and actions, kept fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle, and kept harming the China-Philippines relations. China firmly opposes this," the ministry noted. "There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. The Taiwan question is China's internal affair and is at the very core of China's core interests. How to settle it is a matter for the Chinese ourselves, which brooks no interference," it noted.