The move will remove a potential source of friction with China over the US presence in the region.
The port project was intended to help the unloading of cargo from Manila during rough seas in the monsoon season.
“At first they said they will help but later on, no more, so I asked help from PPA,” Governor Marilou Cayco told Reuters in a message, referring to the Philippine Ports Authority. The Bashi Channel between the Batanes islands and Taiwan is considered a choke point for vessels moving between the western Pacific and the contested South China Sea and would be a key waterway in the case of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
In a statement released to the media on March 22, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said Taiwan was an internal matter for China, so it should never become an issue between China and the Philippines.“Any attempt to implicate the Taiwan question in the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines is dangerous,” the embassy said in a statement, without elaborating on the danger.
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