(RFA) Manila monitors and plans every day for the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the new Philippine defense secretary said Thursday.

Taiwan is a key economic partner of the Philippines and hosts around 150,000 Filipinos, whose safety would be in jeopardy should China invade the island, which it considers a renegade province.

“That is something we continue to monitor daily, and hopefully, the engagements bilaterally between the United States and China leads to the diffusion of tensions in that theater,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told reporters.

“First and foremost, we really have to make an assessment whether such [an attack] is likely or not. Nonetheless, we continue to plan on all contingencies, not merely any flashpoint between China and Taiwan, but any contingency within the theater.”