DFA admonishes China envoy over ‘thinly veiled threat on use of force’

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in a rare public admonishment late Thursday, October 15, said it was “regrettable” that Beijing’s top diplomat to Manila, Jing Quan, “had a poor choice of words that would seem to convey a thinly veiled threat of the use of force.” In a chance interview with reporters earlier on Thursday, Jing denied that China was a troublemaker in the region and blamed the Philippines — or at least Philippine officials — for causing tensions between the two Asian countries. Talking to Philippine reporters, he added: “We should feel fortunate enough that…