China has denied excluding the Philippines from its planned revival of an ancient Maritime Silk Road, which aims to build infrastructure across the region to bolster trade among nations.

“The media report of ‘China bypassing Philippines in its 21st century Maritime Silk Road’ is incorrect,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said in a statement, referring to a Nov. 10 article published by the Wall Street Journal.

In that report, the Wall Street Journal said “official Chinese maps… show the route conspicuously bypassing the Philippines.”

It also quoted Philippine Foreign Undersecretary for Economic Relations Laura del Rosario as saying that the Philippines felt it was left out of the plan.

NO MAP PUBLISHED

The embassy said Beijing has not published such map or intends to leave out the Philippines, which is territorially at odds with a militarily far more superior China over disputed features of the South China Sea.

“China has never published any official map of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, nor has China excluded the Philippines from the blueprint of the 21st century maritime silk road,” the embassy said.

“Since ancient times, the trade, cultural, and personal exchanges between China and the Philippines have been conducted on the sea with a history of more than a millennium,” it added.

Read more: http://www.mb.com.ph/china-assures-ph-is-part-of-maritime-silk-road-plan/