China protests Taiwan foreign minister’s visit to the Philippines

Taiwan’s foreign minister has flown to the Philippines with a high-level delegation of investors, according to two senior Philippine officials

MANILA, Philippines — Taiwan’s foreign minister has flown to the Philippines as head of a high-level delegation of investors, two senior Philippine officials said Saturday, prompting a protest from China and a warning to Manila “not to play with fire.”

Relations between China and the Philippines have been strained as their coast guards and other forces spar in increasingly tense confrontations over the ownership of islands and fishing grounds in the disputed South China Sea. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung’s visit earlier this week to Manila and the Clark Freeport Zone, an industrial hub north of the capital, has exacerbated the tensions.

Philippine officials have publicly neither confirmed nor denied news reports of Lin’s visit, but two members of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet told The Associated Press that Taiwan’s top diplomat flew to the country “in his private capacity” to lead a major delegation of Taiwanese investors and business executives in the semiconductor and other key industries.

Lin did not have any official engagements with political and security officials while in the Philippines for two or three days, said the two officials, who did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because