Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said he would return the U.S. Typhon missile system stationed in the country if the Chinese regime stops its aggression in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Army deployed the mid-range missile system to the Philippines in April 2024 during a military exercise, leading to repeated objections from Beijing.
Speaking at a regular press conference on Jan. 23, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the Philippines was “essentially creating tensions and antagonism in the region and inciting geopolitical confrontation and an arms race” by bringing the missile system into the region.
“We don’t make any comments on their missile systems, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have,” he told reporters in central Cebu province.
“Let’s make a deal with China: Stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and let them have a living, stop ramming our boats, stop water cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behavior, and we’ll return the Typhon missiles.”
The Typhon system is a land-based, ground-launched system that can fire the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile. The latter can travel more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), which puts parts of mainland China within their range.
The system was deployed by the United States’ first Multi-Domain Task Force amid frequent territorial standoffs between the Philippine and Chinese coast guard vessels in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, including parts which the Philippines named the West Philippine Sea.
It has territorial disputes with neighbors in the area, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan, which Beijing claims to be part of the communist-ruled People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese regime rejected a 2016 international arbitration ruling by a U.N.-affiliated court in the Hague, which rejected Beijing’s expansive claims in the area.
The Philippines’ allies, including the United States and other countries, have condemned Beijing over Chinese vessels’ maneuvers.
Beijing has repeatedly blamed Manila for the stand-offs, saying Chinese vessels were carrying out legitimate law enforcement operations in the region.
