“China has never received any so-called application from former president Duterte and his family to seek asylum from the Chinese government,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters on Monday.
“Regarding some so-called informed sources that are made out of nothing or have ulterior motives, I hope that media friends will carefully identify and not believe them easily.”
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Duterte on March 7 for crimes against humanity over alleged extrajudicial killings that occurred from 2011 to 2019 as a result of the former president’s war on drugs campaign.
According to official police statistics, more than 6,000 Filipinos were killed as a result of the campaign. But human rights groups in the Philippines estimate that the number is much larger, according to Human Rights Watch.
