China warns: PH officials to 'pay price for what they did'
China has warned Philippine officials against "paying the price" if they continue—as they believe so—spreading "malicious information" against them.
Guo Jiakun, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, issued the statement in response to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and West Philippine Sea spokesman Jay Tarriela's vocal stance on China's repeated harassment of Filipino fishers within the Philippine waters.
In a statement on Monday, Jan. 19, Guo claimed that a supposed 'spokesperson' of PCG "has maliciously spread disinformation on China and wantonly smeared China's image."
Certain Philippine uniformed service members, he added, "driven by personal political motives, have repeatedly made outrageous and absurd statements, in a habit of inciting confrontation behavior is despicable."
"China strongly condemns this and has lodged strong protests with the Philippine side," Guo said.
"A word of advice to relevant individuals in the Philippines: immediately stop making provocations and stop confusing right and wrong, or they would pay the price for what they did," he added.
Guo's remark was the first direct involvement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry since the word war erupted between Tarriela and the Chinese embassy in Manila in late December.
It stemmed from Tarriela's remark that China was only doing some political propaganda when it offered assistance to distressed Filipino fishers in the Philippine waters. The PCG official also questioned Chinese troops' presence in the waters.