By Alec Go
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said he will talk to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian following the envoy’s remarks mentioning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan amid the planned new Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites.
Marcos said there might have been an element of “lost in translation” in the statement of the ambassador during the 8th Manila Forum on April 16.
“I’ll be talking to the ambassador soon and I’m sure he’ll be very anxious to give his own interpretation of what he was trying to say,” he said, in response to media queries following his activities in Bulacan on April 19.
“I’m very interested to know what it is that he meant. I interpret it as him trying to say that you should not – Philippines do not provoke or intensify the tensions because it will impact badly on the Filipinos. That’s why that’s how I take it,” he added.
Marcos noted that English is not the “first language” of Huang.
“It was a – we were all a little surprised, but I just put it down to the difference in language,” the President said.
In his speech earlier this week, Huang mentioned the tension in the Taiwan Strait, of which he said stemmed from “Taiwan independence” forces colluding with the US.”
“[It] should not be hard to understand why the announcement of the four additional EDCA sites has caused widespread and grave concern among Chinese people,” he said.
“Some tried to find excuse for the new EDCA sites by citing the safety of the 150,000 OFWs in Taiwan, while China is the last country that wishes to see conflict over the Strait because people on both sides are Chinese,” he said.
Huang said they will not renounce the use of force as protection “against external interference and all separatist activities.”
“The Philippines is advised to unequivocally oppose “Taiwan independence” rather than stoking the fire by offering the US access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs,” the ambassador said.
No details were given as to when the President will meet the Chinese envoy. – gb
