MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine defence department has apologized to China for the “grievous but purely unintentional mistake” of using Taiwan’s defence ministry logo during a ceremony where the Chinese ambassador turned over thousands of assault rifles to the Filipino defence chief and top military commanders. The defence department did not say in its press statement which country owned the defence logo it displayed instead of the emblem of the China’s defence ministry. The wrong logo was printed on a huge banner that was hung prominently above Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, who was sitting on a red carpet and planked by Lorenzana and the Philippine military chief of staff. The defence department stressed that it and the military adhere to the “One China policy,” wherein the Philippine government recognizes only the People’s Republic of China as the sole sovereign state. Duterte has sidelined long-raging territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea in an effort to attract Chinese investment and infrastructure funds.

Source: National Post October 09, 2017 06:52 UTC