China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, which has signed a security treaty with Washington that comes with mutual defense commitments.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday his government will remove a US missile system from the Philippines if Beijing ends its "aggressive and coercive behavior" in the contested South China Sea and ceases claiming Filipino territory.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday challenged China to cease its "aggressive and coercive actions" against Filipino fishermen and Philippines' sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, so he could consider sending back the Typhon missile sustem deployed by the United States.