Manila, Jan. 17 -- Senator Marco Rubio, US President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the State Department, said China should "stop messing around" with the Philippines and Taiwan, noting that its "deeply destabilizing" actions in the region are compelling the US to "counteract."

During his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday (Manila time), Rubio discouraged Beijing from carrying out "anything rash or irrational" when it comes to the Philippines or Taiwan if it is serious about stabilizing US-China relations.

"The actions they are taking now are deeply destabilizing, they are forcing us to take counteractions because we have commitments to the Philippines and we have commitments to Taiwa...