MANILA, Philippines - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio warned China to “stop messing around” with its allies, particularly the Philippines and Taiwan, saying such “deeply destabilizing” actions in the region can have “enormous” effects.
Standing in front of the members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for his confirmation hearing, the Florida lawmaker said that if Beijing is serious in stabilizing U.S.-China relations, then it should avoid doing “anything rash or irrational” so as not to force the U.S. to counteract “in ways we prefer not to have to.”
Recently, China deployed its 165-meter-long coast guard vessel, dubbed “monster ship,” near Zambales.
Despite protests about its presence, Beijing and Manila have agreed to continue in its dialogue on settling territorial disputes in the South China during the 10th Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea held in Beijing last January 16, 2025.
During the hearing, Rubio mentioned that the Philippines has the right to “feel threatened” by the vessel’s presence and is concerned the impact it will have in case of “miscommunication or some inadvertent conflict.”
“The Philippines feels threatened by it, rightfully so. We’ve seen this on a daily basis with the harassment and so forth,” he said.
“If, God forbid, there is some miscommunication or some inadvertent conflict emerges there and we have obligations to them (the Philippines), the impact that it will have on the entire globe is enormous and that includes Europe,” he added.
Rubio underscored Manila’s “strategic importance” to Washington D.C., both in the areas of military and defense, as well as the economic perspective of the relationship.
He also emphasized that the U.S. government must take steps to ensure that the alliance will further be strengthened and will endure.
So far, Senator Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s top pick for Secretary of State, appeared to have breezed through the Senate confirmation hearings, with experts believing that he might be the first and only Cabinet official on Day 1, or Trump’s first official day in office.
