A Philippine lawmaker revealed this week an alleged threat the country’s top military official received from China’s ambassador as tensions soared over differences in the South China Sea.
Huang Xilian, the Chinese envoy, was “very hostile” during a recent meeting with Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the chief of staff of the Philippines armed forces, according to Philippine Sen. JV Ejercito.
“[Brawner] told me on one occasion, Huang confronted him and even aggressively pointed at him while saying: ‘Don’t provoke us,’” Ejercito recounted to Tagalog-language news channel One PH on Tuesday.
The revelation came in the days after the Philippines accused China’s coast guard vessels of harassing, blocking and firing water cannons at Philippine supply boats near Beijing-controlled Scarborough Shoal on Saturday and Manila-held Second Thomas Shoal on Sunday.
The territories, claimed by both governments, lie in the Spratly Islands, whose ownership is contested by half a dozen countries in the region. The archipelago, where at least three of China’s artificial islands have been fully militarized, is located within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, giving it a sovereign right over its underwater resources.
