China tried to get Philippines to drop review of US defence pact, defence chief says

Delfin Lorenzana says a former Chinese envoy to Manila in 2018 said any attempt to revise the Mutual Defence Treaty would be seen by Beijing as an attempt to contain its rise

The Philippines is keen to amend the MDT to make clear the extent to which the US would protect and defend its ally should it be attacked

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Philippine Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana on a visit to the Pentagon on September 10. Photo: AP

Published: 10:04pm, 30 Sep 2021Updated: 10:27pm, 30 Sep 2021

A former Chinese diplomat tried to stop Manila from conducting a review of the defence pact between the United States and the Philippines, defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana revealed on Thursday, over concerns it could be seen in Beijing as an attempt to counter its rise.

Lorenzana, speaking in an online forum commemorating the 70th anniversary of Manila and Washington’s 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty (MDT), also said Beijing was in no hurry to find solutions to the South China Sea conflict, and that President Xi Jinping saw the problem as potentially lasting two more generations.

The Philippines is keen to amend the MDT to make clear the extent to which the US would protect and defend its ally should it come under attack.

“While the US welcomes the idea of revisiting the MDT, an outside party does not. The former Chinese ambassador came to me and said, ‘Please do not touch the MDT. Leave it as it is’,” Lorenzana, a former military attaché to Washington, told the forum, later clarifying that the conversation had taken place in 2018.

“It did surprise me. I asked him why? He said any attempt to revise the MDT would be construed by the Chinese government as an act to contain the rise of China,” Lorenzana later told Reuters after the forum.