By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
It took barely weeks for Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian’s successor, Jing Quan, to turn the dignity of his post into a diplomatic embarrassment. Appointed only last December, Jing has managed, in record time, to shed the basic restraint expected of an envoy and replace it with something closer to lecturing — even scolding — his host country.
Ambassadors are guests. Their task is not to grandstand, not to browbeat lawmakers, and certainly not to accuse officials of lying through embassy statements as if diplomacy were a social media shouting match. Yet this is precisely what Jing Quan has done, openly questioning and dismissing the accounts of Filipino lawmakers and Coast Guard officials who have repeatedly documented aggressive Chinese actions in the West Philippine Sea.
Senator JV Ejercito put it plainly: an ambassador’s role is to improve relations, not inflame tensions. Jing appears to have missed that lesson entirely. By publicly casting doubt on Philippine officials and framing Beijing as the aggrieved party, he has inverted diplomatic etiquette — turning dialogue into provocation.
What makes the behavior more galling is that it occurs amid well-documented incidents at sea, including dangerous maneuvers, water cannon use, and harassment, which have been recorded, reported, and observed by international media. To suggest that Filipino officials are fabricating these encounters is not only insulting; it is reckless.
There is a reason diplomacy has rules. Ambassadors communicate through channels designed to lower temperatures, not spike them. They engage with discretion, not derision. When envoys abandon that framework, they cease to be a bridge and become a liability.
Jing Quan may speak for Beijing, but he is stationed in Manila — and that distinction matters. If his mission is to deepen mistrust rather than understanding, then the problem is no longer misunderstanding at sea. It is misconduct on land.
The Senate’s response sharpens the line that Quan and Beijing should never have crossed. Fifteen senators, spanning parties and persuasions, signed a resolution denouncing the embassy’s statements as a breach of diplomatic norms and an affront to Philippine sovereignty.
If it were up to me, Quan should be packing up to leave. As Senator Risa Hontiveros rightly reminded the chamber, no foreign envoy has the authority to police or silence Filipino speech. And China cannot dictate to us who may speak for the nation’s interests in the West Philippine Sea. Debate among Filipinos is our sovereign right. What China — or any of its emissaries — has no right to do is to silence us.
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