Philippine defence chief calls China’s claims in the South China Sea ‘the biggest fiction and lie’

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro answers questions during an interview with The Associated Press at the Department of National Defense headquarters in Quezon City, Philippines on March 5, 2025. (Aaron Favila / AP Photo)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine defence chief on Monday called China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea as “the biggest fiction and lie” that no Southeast Asian country would accept and said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aggressive policies have undermined the international goodwill fostered by his predecessors.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro fired off his latest tirade against China’s increasingly assertive actions in the region on the same day that the Philippine coast guard separately reported new incidents involving Chinese forces in the Scarborough Shoal, a hotly disputed fishing atoll in the disputed waterway.

A Chinese military helicopter appeared to have tailed, but didn’t closely approach a Philippine lightplane undertaking a routine patrol on Monday over Scarborough. Chinese forces have separately installed a new floating barrier to prevent Filipino fishermen from entering a lagoon in the shoal, which lies off the northwestern Philippines, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela told an online news briefing.

There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials, but in the past, they have repeatedly asserted that Beijing has had sovereign control over the Scarborough Shoal and most of the South China Sea since ancient times.

An international arbitration panel invalidated China’s expansive claims in a 2016 ruling based on the 1982 U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, but Beijing refused to participate in the Philippines-initiated arbitration and continues to defy the decision.

In a speech marking the anniversary of the Philippine military’s Western Command on Palawan province, which faces the South China Sea, Teodoro underscored the need for a “stronger national defense posture” and continued security engagement with allied countries to address the threat posed by Chinese aggression in the waterway, a key global trade route.

“No ASEAN country accepts the legitimacy of that 10-dash line, because that is the biggest fiction and lie that can be sold to any right-thinking person,” Teodoro told Filipino forces.

He was referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation regional bloc that has been negotiating a nonaggression pact called the “code of conduct” with China to prevent the territorial conflicts from spiraling out of control.

ASEAN state members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have been involved in the long-simmering territorial standoffs in the South China Sea. Taiwan also lays a claim similar to that of China, which has demarcated the extent of its declared territory with 10 linear dashes on Chinese maps.

Teodoro said that Xi runs a “small dictatorship and autocracy” and that his “clique” in the Chinese Communist Party is to blame for what the defence chief called Beijing’s aggressive and illegal policies, not Xi’s predecessors or the Chinese people.

“It’s caused by Xi Jinping and his abusive ways … that would possibly destroy his leadership of his party in China and the goodwill that was nurtured by his predecessors,” Teodoro told reporters.

China’s aggressive actions in the disputed waters have prompted the Philippines to build stronger security alliances with friendly countries, Teodoro said.

The Philippines, he said, would sign a visiting forces agreement with New Zealand next month to allow their forces to enter each other’s territory for joint military exercises. Negotiations have reached the final stage for a similar agreement with Canada, he said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has authorized the start of negotiations for such an agreement with France, Teodoro said.

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is due to meet with Teodoro on Friday in Manila for talks that Philippine officials said would spotlight concerns over China’s assertive actions in the contested waters and ways to strengthen the decades-long U.S.-Philippines treaty alliance.

Article written by Jim Gomez, The Associated Press