Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian’s call to the Philippines to oppose Taiwan’s independence in order to secure the lives of 150,000 Filipinos working in the country is the statement of a hostage-taker. How dare Xilian barter with our people’s lives to promote Beijing’s hegemonic agenda in the region!
We call on the Marcos administration to immediately declare the Chinese ambassador persona non grata and expel him from our country. Xilian is a hostage-taker, not an ambassador. We don’t negotiate with hostage-takers. He has no right to threaten our citizens while enjoying our country’s hospitality.
We remind China that the Philippines is an independent and sovereign country with the freedom to form alliances and partnerships with other nations, including the closely watched Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), to promote state-to-state cooperation and explore platforms to engage on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues.
While these agreements and alliances are far from perfect and should still be subject to the Filipinos’ scrutiny and criticisms, no foreign entity has the authority to dictate to us which of these are beneficial or not, much less threaten the lives of our citizens to force us to choose its side.