China tells Philippines: US missile system a ‘destabilizing’ factor in regional security

China’s foreign minister warned Manila that allowing the U.S. to deploy a mid-range missile system in the Philippines was “destabilizing” to regional peace, his Filipino counterpart said Friday in divulging details about their meeting in Laos last month. 

Philippine military officials have not released exact information about the location of the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system – also called the Typhon System – but BenarNews sources have said it has been deployed in northern Luzon island, fronting Taiwan.

The system was transported to the country ostensibly as part of the three-week “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) multinational military exercises in April. However, officials have said that the hardware has remained in the Philippines.

It was the first time the United States deployed the missile system in the Asia-Pacific region, amid the Philippines and China’s row over the South China Sea. Beijing has been criticizing the deployment of the missile launcher, accusing Manila and Washington of aggravating tensions that have flared lately over contending territorial and maritime claims in the waterway.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said that his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, relayed the warning during a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in July in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

“[Wang] said [the missile system] could be destabilizing … and I said, ‘No, they are not destabilizing,’” Manalo told a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondent Association of the Philippines (FOCAP). “I believe that particular missile that he is referring to is only there temporarily.”

“He did not request [for it] to be moved out. I don’t recall [that]. What I recall [him saying is that it] could be destabilizing,” Manalo said, referring to Wang. 

Manila and Washington have an existing Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), which dates back to 1951 and calls on both countries to aid each other in times of aggression by an external power. The Pentagon previously said it was prepared to assist Manila if the Philippines invoked the treaty amid threats from other nations.

Washington said the treaty extended to armed attacks on Philippine vessels, including those of the coast guard, anywhere in the South China Sea. 

Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia have overlapping claims to the waters. Taiwan is also a claimant.

In April in Manila, Lt. Gen. Michael Cederholm, commander of the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Forces, told reporters that the Typhon System’s deployment in the country was “defensive in nature” and only meant to expand the Filipino military’s knowledge about modern warfare systems.

Cederholm would not say how long the MRC system would stay in the Philippines, but he assured the public its deployment was only for America’s Filipino allies to learn how to use it.

“I think it’s pretty straightforward that we are bringing a defensive capability that is fairly new and we are figuring out how to interoperate [while] moving around in various spots that we are going to deploy it,” he said at the time.

The Typhon System can fire the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and Tomahawk missiles and support strike capabilities from land, sea and air.

It was designed for extended-range anti-air warfare against ballistic missiles, with an operational range of more than 240 km (150 miles) and an active radar-homing guidance system that allows the projectile to find and track its target autonomously.