Duterte: China’s Xi Jinping threatened war if Philippines drills for oil in the South China Sea

From the CNNPhilippines:

 President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday that his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, had warned of war if the Philippines started to drill for oil in the contested South China Sea.

“He told me, ‘We do not want to quarrel with you. We would want to maintain the present warm relationship. But if you force the issue, we will go to war’,” Duterte said, quoting Xi in one of their recent exchanges.

Duterte said during the Philippine Coastguard Auxiliary National Convention in Davao City that Xi had insisted on the Asian giant’s centuries-old claim to the vast South China Sea as against a recent tribunal ruling.