MANILA — The Philippine government should take control of the country’s largest shipyard, the defense secretary said on Thursday, after officials raised concerns that Chinese companies seeking to take it over would act as agents of Beijing, projecting China’s power deeper into the region.

Among the foreign companies expressing interest in the sprawling shipyard on Subic Bay are two Chinese firms, one of which is state-owned, according to Philippine officials. They have voiced fears that a Chinese takeover of the yard would give a strategic foothold to China, which is expanding its economic and military presence in the region and has seized islands in the South China Sea that are claimed by the Philippines, among others.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had raised the issue of the shipyard in a meeting on Wednesday with President Rodrigo Duterte, who has tried to improve relations with Beijing, worrying American policymakers who have long seen the Philippines as a strategic check on China. Also in the meeting were Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and the country’s economic managers.

“The Philippine Navy suggested that, why not the Philippines take over so that we’ll have a naval base there?” he told foreign correspondents on Thursday, recounting his conversation with the president. “Then we’ll have shipbuilding capabilities.”