CHINA said today that a plan by the Philippines to deploy mid-range missiles would be a provocative move that stokes regional tensions.

The warning to the close ally of the United States comes as China slams the US for being the biggest threat to global security and for its occupation of part of Cuban territory.

Lieutenant General Roy Galido told reporters in Manila on Monday that the military plans to acquire a mid-range system to defend the country’s territory.

The US deployed its Typhon mid-range missile system in the northern Philippines in April and troops from both countries have been training jointly for the potential use of the heavy weaponry. They have agreed to keep the system in the Philippines indefinitely to boost deterrence.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that deployment of the weapon by the Philippines would intensify geopolitical confrontation and an arms race.

She told a daily briefing: “It is an extremely irresponsible choice for the history and people of itself and the whole of south-east Asia, as well as for the security of the region.”

The Philippines defence plan includes protecting its exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles.

General Galido said: “It is paramount for the army to be able to project its force up to that extent, in co-ordination, of course, with the Philippine navy and the Philippine air force.”

The latest escalation of US military support in the Philippines came hours after China slammed the US for being the biggest threat to global security.

Chinese Ministry of Defence spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said: “The US’s addiction to war makes it the biggest threat to global security.”

He added that the US is destroying the international order with its “war-mongering policies and confrontation-based military strategy and increasingly adventurous offensives.”

Mr Zhang said that Washington was using its military superiority to support unipolar hegemony and provoking “colour revolutions” that cause “civilian casualties, extremely serious material damage and lead to humanitarian disasters.”

This follows Friday’s call by the Chinese for the US to end its illegal occupation of Cuban territory.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that successive US administrations have vowed to close Guantanamo Bay. 

Mr Lin said the US should cease its “illegal occupation” of territories in Cuba and urged Washington to “close its detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and withdraw from the base in Guantanamo as soon as possible.”

Mr Lin said: “The US’s repeated failure to honour its promise to close this self-run ‘concentration camp’ will only add another stain to the US’s negative human rights record.”