China warns Philippines against relying on US to make waves in South China Sea (2025)

The Philippines should stop making waves in the South China Sea by relying on U.S. support, as it will only "backfire", a spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense warned on Wednesday.

Zhang Xiaogang, the spokesman, made the warning in response to a media query about U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's recent visit to the Philippines. During the visit, Hegseth reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty to counter the "China threat", and the two countries also conducted joint sea patrols in the South China Sea amid rising tensions. Additionally, the United States has recently approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines.

Zhang noted that such provocative actions undermine China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, while also threatening regional peace and stability.

"On the pretext of honoring bilateral treaties, the United States is meddling in the South China Sea issue, undermining China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and attempting to threat and coerce China. This approach will simply not work. It needs to be pointed out that the Philippine side has repeatedly made infringements and provocation against China. Outside countries led by the United States have made continued attempts to destabilize the South China Sea through escalating tensions and providing weapons. It fully exposed their true intention of making troubles in the region. To the Philippine side, relying on foreign support to make waves in the South China Sea will backfire and eventually pawns will easily be abandoned. We urge the Philippine side to give up unrealistic illusions and come back to the right track of dialogue and negotiation at an early date," said Zhang.

The ongoing 137th edition of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, has fascinated visitors with the latest achievements of China's artificial intelligence development efforts.

The fair kicked off on Tuesday in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, with the number of export exhibitors exceeding 30,000 for the first time in the history of this event.

The first phase of the Canton Fair, held from April 15 to 19, focuses on advanced manufacturing and for the first time added a special zone for service robots.

Many overseas buyers at the service robots zone use their mobile phones to capture images of robotic dogs, industrial exoskeleton equipment, automatic cruise robots, coffee-making robots and other products, while asking exhibitors for more details about their functions.

"I am very impressed by China's achievements in AI. This is my first time visiting the Canton Fair, and the innovations I have seen in AI are incredible. What China has achieved has broken down communication barriers not only within the country, but also for the whole world," said a Russian buyer.

"It is amazing. Everything looks very, very cutting-edge, like, wow. I look [have seen] many, many applications in the future for the Chinese technology here so I would do business with them," said a Swedish buyer.

Many overseas buyers are shifting their product selection priorities from a focus on the price-performance ratio to a technology-oriented approach. For numerous international customers, high technology and intelligence have become a key factors in their purchasing decisions.

"I am particularly looking for the house cleaning robots, and we found some very, very good products. [Smart products] are getting more popular now. I've been coming to China for about 10 years. I saw the difference every year getting higher and higher and better and better products," said a Brazilian buyer.

The fair also includes an industry trend forum focused on AI plus consumer electronics, bringing together domestic AI experts, analysts, representatives from industry organizations and research institutions, and corporate representatives to explore the deep integration of AI technology with the consumer electronics sector.

"We see huge business opportunities existing abroad. As an emerging company, we also hope to take the Canton Fair as a platform to assess the overseas market. We have already received numerous inquiries and business contacts from various countries," said Tian Gang, a Chinese exhibitor.

Established in 1957, the Canton Fair is held twice a year in Guangzhou. It is the longest-running of several comprehensive international trade events in China and has been hailed as the barometer of China's foreign trade.