The United States is set to announce details of a brand new alliance with the Philippines and 4 new military bases on the island nation because it makes an attempt to curb China’s enlargement in the South China Sea.
The US is keen to rekindle a former friendship with the Philippines, 30 years after they have been advised to leave, and plug a gap in what it believes could possibly be a possible political flashpoint near Taiwan.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is meeting Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Junior in Manila at present to debate US military bases within the nation to permit them to monitor the South China Sea and round Taiwan.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the G20 Summit in Indonesia in November final 12 months to speak concerning the One-China concern.
Biden acknowledged the One-China policy of Taiwan as a province and part of the Chinese mainland, acknowledged by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution in 1971, and another 181 countries. He also promised there could be no “new Cold War” adding he did not imagine China would invade Taiwan.
Yet these latest strikes appear to contradict Biden’s earlier promises. But, with the trillions invested in the US navy, it seems they have to be at war with somebody otherwise the cash can be wasted.
Award-winning Australian journalist John Pilger warned of the Coming War on China in a documentary and highlighted the lots of of military bases surrounding China, within the South China Sea.
The US is in search of entry to bases near Taiwan, with three of them probably located on Luzon, an island in the northern Philippines.
Gregory B Poling, director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, stated no contingency in the South China Sea does not require entry to the Philippines.
“The US is not looking for permanent bases. It’s about locations, not bases.”
This is not a return to the Nineteen Eighties when the Philippines had 15,000 US troops and two of the most important American military bases in Asia at Clark Field, and Subic Bay.
In 1991 the Philippine authorities underneath Ferdinand Marcos referred to as time on its old colonial masters to additional cement each democracy and independence.
The Vietnam War was long over, the Cold War was winding down, and China did not have a powerful navy presence.
Now, Ferdinand Marcos is reportedly nervous about China’s presence in the South China Sea and needs a US alliance despite words to the contrary last month.
Since 2014 China has built 10 synthetic island bases, including one at Mischief Reef, deep contained in the Philippines’ unique economic zone.
Herman Kraft, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, stated relations between Manila and Beijing had been freed from major issues around that point.
“We had a live-and-let-live state of affairs within the South China Sea. But in 2012 they tried to grab management of Scarborough Shoal. Then in 2014, they began constructing the islands. The land grab by China modified the connection.”
Former Philippine Ambassador to the US, Jose Cuisia Jr., said…
“We have very restricted functionality against the menace from China. The Chinese have repeatedly broken guarantees not to militarise their new South China Sea bases.
“The Chinese have militarised those features and that puts more of our territory under threat. Only the US has the ability to stop them. The Philippines can not do it alone.”
Not everybody in the Philippines is happy with the proposed arrangement.
Renato Reyes, secretary basic of New Patriotic Alliance, highlighted the previous historical past of violence and abuse by US troops within the Philippines publish World War II until the 1990s. There are an estimated 15,000 youngsters left with their Filipina moms when their American fathers went residence.
“We have a protracted history of inequality in our relationship. The Philippines has been pressured to shoulder the social prices. There’s a history of rape, child abuse, and of toxic waste.”
Washington is asking for access to a quantity of new places, some going through the South China Sea, others dealing with north towards Taiwan. Unofficial reviews point to options in Cagayan, Zambales, Palawan, and Isabela.
The first one faces Taiwan, the second the Scarborough shoal, and the third the Spratly Islands. Classified will be inside existing Philippine bases. US troops will come in small teams and on rotation.
Poling reckons the move will deter further territorial growth by China within the South China Sea, while also offering a spot for the US to look at Chinese military movements around Taiwan.
Beijing is understandably suspicious of any agreement between Manila and Washington and in today’s Global Times an editorial stated that the US is “setting a lure for the Philippines” and “trying to push the Philippines to the frontline of confrontation with China.”
Reyes added that the Philippines is caught in the middle and slammed his nation’s colonial mentality..