Trump's top diplomat pick warns China

(UPDATE) UNITED States Sen. Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the State Department, said China should "stop messing around" with the Philippines and Taiwan, noting that its "deeply destabilizing" actions in the region are compelling the US to "counteract." During his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday (Manila time), Rubio discouraged Beijing from carrying out "anything rash or irrational" when it comes to the Philippines or Taiwan if it is serious about stabilizing US-China relations. TOUGH TALK Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be the secretary of state, appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025 (local time). PHOTO BY ALEX BRANDON/AP "The actions they are taking now are deeply destabilizing; they are forcing us to take counteractions because we have commitments to the Philippines, and we have commitments to Taiwan that we intend to keep," he said. "If they want to destabilize the relationship or they want to at least create some pathway for stabilization of our relationship with them, they really need to stop messing around with Taiwan and with the Philippines because it's forcing us to focus our attention in ways we prefer not to have to." The senator from Florida warned that if any "miscommunication" or "some inadvertent conflict" emerges out of China's harassment in the South China Sea, which would then force the US to defend the Philippines as its treaty ally, the impact it would have on the entire globe would be "enormous." Most recently, Beijing drew Manila's ire after it deployed a 165-meter-long coast guard vessel, dubbed the "monster ship," near Zambales, an example of the "harassment" Rubio mentioned in the hearing. "The Philippines feels threatened by it, rightfully so. We've seen this on a daily basis with the harassment and so forth," he said. In a text message to the Philippine News Agency, Manila-based geopolitical analyst and De La Salle University Department of International Studies professor Don McLain Gill said Rubio's remarks indicated that the stability of US-China relations "rests greatly on whether China would respect Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights." His statements, Gill said, also made it "clear that China is indeed the aggressor in the West Philippine Sea and that the US-Philippines alliance will remain vital in Washington's security calculations." "By upholding US security commitments to the Philippines and highlighting the significance of Philippine security as a determinant for future US-China ties, Senator Rubio illustrated how the bilateral alliance and US security commitments to the Philippines are not up for bargain and will not be subjected to any tradeoff between the US and China," Gill said. On Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the Philippines reiterated its willingness to settle its dispute with China in the South China Sea through dialogue. Manila and Beijing convened the 10th meeting of the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea (BCM) in Xiamen, Fujian, the "hometown of the majority of Chinese Filipinos," the DFA said in a statement. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stressed the Philippines' "commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue and diplomacy." Lazaro and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong had "frank and constructive discussions" on the situation in the South China Sea and other bilateral issues, the DFA said. "Our position is clear and consistent, but so is our willingness to engage in dialogue," Lazaro said in her opening remarks. "We firmly believe that despite the unresolved challenges and differences, there is genuine space for diplomatic and pragmatic cooperation in dealing with our issues in the South China Sea," she said. The two sides exchanged views on the provisional understanding on the Philippines' rotation and resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea They agreed to "continue its implementation to sustain the de-escalation of tensions without prejudice to respective national positions," the DFA said. The Philippines expressed serious concern regarding recent incidents in the South China Sea, particularly the activities of the China Coast Guard in Philippine waters that were "inconsistent" with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and the Philippine Maritime Zones Act. The meeting agreed to reinvigorate the platform for coast guard cooperation, the DFA said. The Philippines will host the next BCM, the department said. On Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said the BRP Gabriela Silang intercepted and challenged the China Coast Guard (CCG) "monster ship," vessel 5901, off the Zambales coast.