{"id":136614,"date":"2025-08-11T09:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136614\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T09:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:44:11","slug":"marcos-says-the-philippines-will-be-drawn-kicking-and-screaming-into-any-taiwan-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136614\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcos says the Philippines will be drawn ‘kicking and screaming’ into any Taiwan war"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines (AP) \u2014 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday his country would inevitably be drawn \u201ckicking and screaming\u201d into any war over Taiwan due to its proximity to the self-ruled island and the presence of large numbers of Filipino workers there, despite China\u2019s strong protest over such remarks.<\/p>\n

Marcos also told a news conference that the Philippines\u2019 coast guard, navy and other vessels defending its territorial interests in the South China Sea would never back down and would stand their ground in the contested waters after the Chinese coast guard on Monday staged dangerous blocking maneuvers and used a powerful water cannon<\/a> to try to drive away Philippine vessels from the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest flare-up of long-simmering territorial disputes in the busy waterway, a key global trade route, where overlapping claims between China and the Philippines have escalated<\/a> in recent years. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to parts of the contested waters.<\/p>\n

Relations between China and the Philippines have been severely strained<\/a> after Marcos, who took office in mid-2022, and his administration emerged as some of the most vocal critics<\/a> in Asia of China\u2019s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea. The Marcos administration deepened its treaty alliance engagements with the United States and started broadening security alliances with other Western and Asian countries like Japan, Australia, India and some EU member states to strengthen deterrence against Beijing\u2019s assertiveness.<\/p>\n

China protested last week and accused Marcos of interfering in its domestic affairs and violating its \u201cOne China\u201d policy<\/a> when he told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to India that there was no way the Philippines could stay out of a possible war in Taiwan because of his country\u2019s proximity to it and the presence of about 200,000 Filipino workers on the self-ruled island. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly threatened to annex it, by force if necessary.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Foreign Ministry then said through a spokesperson that \u201c\u2018geographic location\u2019 and a \u2018large volume of Filipinos\u2019 in Taiwan should not be used as pretexts to interfere in the internal and sovereign affairs of other countries\u201d and urged the Philippines \u201cto earnestly abide by the One China principle\u201d and \u201crefrain from playing fire on issues bearing on China\u2019s core interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on China\u2019s protest, Marcos said he was perplexed and could not understand Beijing\u2019s concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about, playing with fire? I was just stating facts. We do not want to go to war, but I think if there is a war over Taiwan, we will be drawn, we will be pulled in whether we like it or not, kicking and screaming,\u201d Marcos said. \u201cWe will be drawn and dragged into that mess. I hope it doesn\u2019t happen, but, if it does, we have to plan for it already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese coast guard ships chased and staged dangerous blocking maneuvers on Monday against Philippine coast guard and fishing vessels in the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing atoll in the South China Sea off the northwestern Philippines. A Philippine coast guard ship managed to evade being hit by a Chinese coast guard water cannon during the melee, he said.<\/p>\n

While chasing a Philippine coast guard vessel, a Chinese coast guard ship accidentally collided with a Chinese navy ship, Tarriela said. The Chinese coast guard ship sustained \u201csubstantial damage\u201d and the Philippine coast guard offered to provide help, including medical assistance, to the Chinese side, he said.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials on Tarriela\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n

Asked if the Philippine vessels would be instructed to withdraw from the disputed shoal, Marcos said his government would never back away from any fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no silver bullet that if you fire it, all our problems would be solved,\u201d Marcos said. \u201cWhat will happen is, we will continue to be present, we will continue to defend our territory, we will continue to exercise our sovereign rights and despite any opposition from anyone, we will continue to do that as we have done in the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANILA, Philippines (AP) \u2014 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday his country would inevitably be drawn \u201ckicking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,13214,13212,56706,57,82126,50,24958,56708,402,30723,96,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-136614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-asia-pacific","10":"tag-china-government","11":"tag-ferdinand-marcos-jr","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-jay-tarriela","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-philippines","16":"tag-philippines-government","17":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","18":"tag-taiwan","19":"tag-war-and-unrest","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115009491103483884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}