{"id":205673,"date":"2019-03-07T23:03:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T04:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=205673"},"modified":"2019-03-07T23:03:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T04:03:43","slug":"china-checking-reports-vessels-driving-away-ph-fishers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/07\/china-checking-reports-vessels-driving-away-ph-fishers\/","title":{"rendered":"China \u2018checking\u2019 reports vessels driving away PH fishers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI think it is in the common interest of all countries, including China, the United States and Asean countries, that we keep the peace and stability there and we keep the freedom of navigation in the whole South China Sea open,\u201d Zhao said. (PNA File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Chinese government is verifying reports that Chinese vessels are driving away Filipino fishermen from sand bars near Pag-asa Island in the disputed West Philippine Sea or South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Chinese ambassador Zhao Jinhua made this assurance, stressing the Chinese government has committed to settle sea disputes peacefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are checking and we are in close coordination with DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and we will be checking whether it is true or not,\u201d Zhao said in a chance interview with reporters in Malaca\u00f1an Palace on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest assured China is committed to peacefully settle the disputes we have and we are working very well in managing our differences,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Zhao said Chinese government is also working with DFA to polish the Code of Conduct (CoC) on the WPS meant to prevent misunderstanding in the contested maritime area.<\/p>\n

The draft framework of the COC was approved during the ASEAN Summit held in Manila in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, we are working on the COC, Code of Conduct, and the Filipino side is the country coordinator for China-Asean relationship so we are hoping that we can make further progress in our joint efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n

Zhao emphasized the importance of keeping freedom of navigation in the contested waters open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is in the common interest of all countries, including China, the United States and Asean countries, that we keep the peace and stability there and we keep the freedom of navigation in the whole South China Sea open,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n

Last week, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo vowed to defend the Philippines if forces are attacked in the disputed sea.<\/p>\n

Zhao said that Chinese government is not concerned about Pompeo\u2019s remark.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that you would expect the Chinese side to be very concern about these remarks. We are concerned more, it\u2019s about the peace and stability in the South China Sea,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody, every country will suffer if peace and stability become something to the opposite, that it\u2019s chaos or conflict,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if Philippines should be concerned about possible attacks from China, Zhao said he was more concerned about attacks coming from \u201cthe other side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we are worried about possible attacks from the other side. We don\u2019t worry about China attacking anybody because it is not our policy,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other side use your imagination,\u201d he added, refusing to elaborate what he meant by \u201cother side\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Philippines, China and other states have overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Chinese government is verifying reports that Chinese vessels are driving away Filipino fishermen from sand bars near Pag-asa Island …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":108149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}