The recent actions of the Philippines all show that Marcos Jr. has put aside the promise he made to China at the beginning of the year-“Philippines pursues an independent foreign policy” and is now fighting fiercely with the United States and Japan. It is not difficult to see that Marcos Jr. is not the next Duterte, and perhaps he is not as anti-China as Aquino III, but this does not mean that he is neutral and pragmatic. The term “fence-sitting” may be more appropriate.
Little Marcos will suffer a lot sooner or later
- Mutations in the Philippines
On February 2, the U.S.-Philippines Department of Defense jointly issued a statement and announced that Manila will open four new military bases to the United States. In addition to the five military bases opened in 2014, the current U.S. military will have nine available in the Philippines. military base. According to foreign media reports, the four new military bases are located in Luzon Island and Palawan Island respectively.
It is worth noting that these two islands face the southern waters of Taiwan Island and the South China Sea respectively, posing a great threat to the actions of our navy and air force.
On February 12, in an interview with Nikkei News, Marcos revealed some information about his trip to Japan. He noted that tensions in the Asia-Pacific region have prompted Manila to step up cooperation with Washington and Tokyo, stressing that the United States is the Philippines’ only ally. At the same time, Marcos Jr. revealed that he is negotiating with the government of Fumio Kishida to enhance the defense relationship between the two countries. Japan may join the US-Philippines military cooperation and joint exercises as an observer country.
Fumio Kishida
In addition, recently, Marcos’s attitude towards the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea has also become extremely tough. He said that the South China Sea is very important to neighboring countries. In view of the increasing tension, we are coordinating joint exercises with Australia, South Korea, Japan and other countries. The primary interest is to continue to pass through the South China Sea safely. When talking about conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, Marcos Jr. said that the Philippines is only a few tens of minutes away from Taiwan. If the conflict is detonated, the Philippines may take a military response.
- “Ready for battle” on Mischief Reef
Regarding the various current actions of the Philippines, our side appears to be very cautious about it, and has not reacted strongly. This is mainly because our country has already made adequate arrangements for such emergencies. After all, our country’s sand blowing and reclamation projects in the South China Sea have never stopped.
Recently, the Maxar Corporation of the United States released a satellite photo of our military deployment in the South China Sea, which clearly shows to the outside world that our country has sufficient response capabilities to the changing situation in the South China Sea. The photo was taken from Meiji Reef in China’s Nansha Islands. The photo shows that our army has built a large number of new military facilities on Meiji Reef, and related facilities such as barracks, docks, and large airports are extremely complete.
US satellite map
In addition, the KJ-500 and 022 missile boats also appeared in the satellite photos, and Maxar specially enlarged the logos for these two pieces of equipment. Such careful marking of the 022 parked at the pier and the KJ-500 taking off from the airport runway is related to American society’s concern about the situation in the South China Sea and some actions of the US military.
Source: 163 News