China should send warships to the Philippines as part of the typhoon disaster relief effort to counter US and Japanese influence, state-run media said on Friday.
Beijing and Manila are embroiled in a row over disputed islands, but if the Philippines rejected the warships proposal, that would only “underscore its narrow mind and will be of no loss to China”, the Global Times said in an editorial.
An eight-strong flotilla of US vessels, headed by the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, arrived off the Philippines on Thursday bearing badly needed equipment, supplies and expertise for the thousands left homeless and hungry by one of the strongest storms in history.
Tokyo is tripling its emergency aid package for the Philippines to more than US$30 million, and plans to send as many as 1,000 troops to the disaster zone – the largest single relief operation team sent abroad by its de-facto military.
“We believe China should send its warships to the Philippines too,” said the Global Times, which is close to the Communist Party, adding such a move would be “well-intentioned”.
The dispute over islands in the strategically vital South China Sea – which Beijing claims almost in its entirety – has been running for years.
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