A Philippine Navy official on Sunday bared that China wants to engage the Philippines in never-ending bilateral talks on territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

In a radio interview, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, the Navy spokesperson for the WPS, pointed out that China’s “long negotiation strategy” is well written in the “books of communists to prolong the fight.”

“In the negotiation, that’s part of the tactics to prolong their fight. Look at our communist insurgency here — it has been six decades and how many peace talks we have had with them. Because peace talks are there to support the war efforts so that our efforts will lead to nothing,” Trinidad said.

Meanwhile, Trinidad said the government should file another petition against China’s continuing harassment in the WPS before the United Nations.

“The government has been advised to file new petitions against China before the UN for their continuing harassment and our government is considering this. And as we see, China is telling us not to file, let’s talk instead,” he said.

Trinidad believes the territorial issues between the two countries should be brought to a court of law.

“But for me, we should file. Because China is worrying if we would file a petition, they would be embarrassed,” he added.

On 12 July, the Philippines marked the eighth anniversary of the country’s arbitral victory in 2016, which also invalidated China’s dash-line claims over nearly the entire South China Sea.

The 2016 Arbitral Ruling confirmed the country’s maritime entitlements and rejected those that exceeded geographic and substantive limits under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.