BARELY three months into his stint, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan must be learning the ropes: no such thing as Filipino diplomacy.
Sensitive issues that are normally coursed through foreign relations channels are broadcast as though they are for open public consumption, complete with pomp and bombast, so that instead of harmonizing a dispute, they widen the rift and quicken the burst of confrontation.
The unabated criticism by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, Jay Tarriela, accusing China of aggression in Philippine territorial waters, should be good food for thought.
Certain well-meaning quarters consider Tarriela’s actions as indicative of weakness in the leadership of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
What gall indeed of a lowly subaltern usurping the power intrinsic to the chief executive!
Tariela has been doing just that.
According to a mainstream media report, Kalayaan, the Philippine municipality that claims jurisdiction over nine features in the Spratly Islands, declared Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan persona non grata on Tuesday, Jan. 27, over the embassy’s public remarks against Filipino officials defending the country’s maritime claims.
Here’s how the report put it: “Ambassador Jing Quan and the Chinese embassy recently engaged in blatant interference by demanding that the Philippine government ‘hold accountable’ Commodore Jay Tarriela, the PCG spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, for his transparency efforts — an act that constitutes an attempt to intimidate a Philippine officer for performing his patriotic duty.”
Clearly, what is put at stake as national interest is the say-so of the PCG spokesman as amplified by the Kalayaan municipality.
As an official stand of a unit of the Philippine government, the Kalayaan Council resolution appears to be expressive enough of the true sentiments of the Filipino nation.
But getting down to brass tacks, talk of demographics.
Kalayaan is a one-village municipality with a 2024 population of 406. How much is that of the Philippine population total in the same period which was 112,729,484? 406 divided by 112,729,484 times 100. Equals 0.0003601542254 percent.
That’s how mini-minuscule is the percentage of Filipinos that want Ambassador Jing declared persona non grata.
Not even a dust in the wind!
And yet, look at how mainstream media magnify the issue.
As if Ambassador Jing had made a truly gargantuan monstrous offense against the Filipino nation.
Leading broadsheets, tabloids, broadcast stations, social media platforms, public and academic forums — every venue for disseminating information came into play such that overnight, Ambassador Jing Quan was pictured as a harbinger of bad fortune for the Philippines.
Not quite surprisingly, the phenomenon was what this column saw coming at the very start.
Throwback to “My Say” Dec. 20, 2025 (“Ambassador Jing Quan: From the frying pan to the fire”).
Having come from being a longtime deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., Ambassador Jing certainly must have been well-done “fried” in US-China relations to qualify for handling the real, direct heat of the simmering tensions in the West Philippine Sea.
As asserted in that article, the Philippines is not even a puppet state but an appendage of the United States.
There is no Philippines.
There is only America.
Going by generalities, the Philippines is everything America in all aspects of social, political, economic and cultural living.
Particularly on defense and security, what the Philippines have are all for America: the Mutual Defense Treaty, which demands Filipinos defend America in case of an attack in the Pacific; the Visiting Forces Agreement, which allows deployment of American troops and equipment in the Philippines ostensibly for disaster response but actually for sudden contingencies that US wars are; and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which restores the already constitutionally banned Military Bases Agreement with America.
Given these conclusions, Ambassador Jing Quan’s previous assignment in Mainland USA could amount to a thorough process for learning that until such time that the Philippines is completely weaned away from the United States, Filipino diplomacy remains American. Before long, the envoy will realize that he is not only up against the Tarrielas but also the Teodoros, Brawners, Enriquezes, et al., all at America’s beck and call.
So, Ambassador Jing has a lot of rolling up of sleeves to do to brace for the real fiery fights.
In an audience with the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute Wednesday of last week, Ambassador JIng was quite calm and composed, even throwing some punchlines for relief as he navigated through the otherwise serious, intense rigmarole.
Indeed, quite unlike many celebrity envoys who ramble through much bravura in pushing an advocacy, he chose to be polite as polite can be.
“If President Marcos tells me to go, then I will leave immediately,” he declared, leaving no room for any of his listeners to doubt his sincerity.
But to one accustomed to high-end remarks, sincerity of a finely calculating speaker always has a way of coursing itself through subtexts.
And from Ambassador Quan in that audience, the subtext that struck was that President Bongbong will never ask him to leave.
Ergo, he remains Chinese ambassador to the Philippines.
He and his diplomatic team persevere in their noble ideal of protecting Chinese honor and sovereignty — to the end.
Tarriela continues to have his cause to blast China.
Ergo, calls for declaring Ambassador Jing persona non grata intensify.
The Senate appears divided on that one single call, but after undergoing the cleverly schemed process, such division — each side having been actually conceived by America for the ultimate push of its design in the South China Sea region — converges in one mighty social explosion ultimately threatening to bring the Philippines to the programmed war with China.
But still and all, to prevent such a war occurrence was this column’s ultimate challenge to Ambassador Jing Quan: How to jump from the frying pan to the fire without getting burned.
Tall order?
Maybe.
But we are talking about Ambassador Jing Quan.
He’s not been a longtime Chinese deputy chief of mission in the United States for nothing.
He was in that post in a long particular period of President Donald Trump’s binge of world misdemeanors: tariff sanctions here and there, wars in the Middle East between Iran and Israel, in Europe between Russia and Ukraine, the escalating tension over Taiwan, the recent high-handed kidnapping of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and the dastardly declaration of America’s annexation of Greenland — which, incidentally, particularly earned China’s chagrin; all these might have constituted just desk work for Ambassador Quan but nevertheless provided a solid foundation for doing practical action in the event the United States ultimately makes its planned move against China in the Philippines.
The ambassador must surely have aces up his sleeve in this regard.
One sure hint, at the last APEC Summit in Seoul, South Korea, President Bongbong broke protocol to extend a congratulatory handshake to Chinese President Xi Jinping for his current chairmanship of APEC.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was taken aback, but President Xi was quick to stay Yi’s alarm and warmly accepted Marcos’ handshake.
Talk of subtext.
Bongbong will never ask Ambassador Jing Quan to leave.
