Philippine President Vows to Back US Intervention If China Invades Taiwan

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Aug 9, 2025 - 10:04 Updated: Aug 9, 2025 - 09:56
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Philippine President Vows to Back US Intervention If China Invades Taiwan
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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his country could not remain neutral if China were to invade Taiwan, due to its geographical proximity and the large number of citizens working there.

“If there is an all-out war, we will be drawn into it,” Marcos said in an interview with Indian news website Firstpost, while in New Delhi for a state visit on Aug. 6.

Marcos was responding to a question about whether the Philippines would support the United States using military resources to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, or if it would try to “stay out” of the conflict. He made it clear that staying out is simply not an option due to how close the Philippines is to Taiwan.

The Philippines and Taiwan are separated by the Luzon Strait, a busy commercial passageway and a strategic choke point for Chinese naval access to the broader Pacific. The strait is about 200 miles wide at most places and dotted with islands owned by the Philippines.

Recent years have seen the Marcos administration showing increasing openness to expanding the U.S. military presence in the region. In 2023, Manila expanded its military cooperation agreement with Washington, for the first time allowing the United States to deploy troops and weapons at a naval base and a joint-use airport located on the northern coast of Luzon Island, less than 300 miles from Taiwan. In 2024, Manila drew Beijing’s ire when it allowed Washington to deploy Typhon missile platform in northern Luzon, likely putting them within range of targets in Taiwan and southern China.
More recently, in May, U.S. Marines and Army deployed NMESIS and HIMARS missile systems on islands overlooking the Luzon Strait, including the northernmost Philippine territory of Batanes Islands. Both missile systems are capable of striking ships well more than 100 miles away.

“We will have to defend our territory and our sovereignty,” Marcos told Firstpost. “Why should we turn down partners who face the Chinese threat? We are not acting as a puppet state. It is our duty to defend our country.”

Marcos then pointed to the Filipinos living and working in Taiwan, emphasizing the humanitarian crisis that could “immediately” unfold if war broke out. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor, as of June 2023, there were more than 169,000 Philippine citizens in Taiwan as lawful migrant workers, making up one-fifth of all foreign workers registered with the government.

“We will have to find a way to go in there and bring our people home,” Marcos said.

Marcos’s comments prompted a furious reaction from Beijing. On Aug. 8, China’s Foreign Ministry announced that its diplomatic mission in the Philippines had lodged a “serious protest,” accusing the Philippines of interfering in what it claims is the “core of China’s core interests.”

The ministry accused the Philippines of making “wrong and provocative remarks” and “harming the China-Philippines relations.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Yet it claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and has never ruled out using force to unite the democratic island with the authoritarian mainland.

The Philippine Embassy in Beijing did not respond to a request for comments by publication time.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has applauded Marcos’s stance.

“This ministry highly commends and respects President Marcos for once again voicing his strong concern for regional peace and his emphasis on humanitarian values,” it said on Aug. 7.

At another point in the Firstpost interview, Marcos said he is confident that the United States, under President Donald Trump, would honor its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines in the event of a conflict. He described the U.S.-Philippines alliance as “ironclad,” and highlighted that it was Trump who coined that term during his first presidency.

“I sincerely believe that [commitment] remains constant,” Marcos said.

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