(C) Common Dreams
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Biden Aims to Deter China With Greater U.S. Military Presence in Philippines [1]
['Edward Wong', 'Eric Schmitt']
Date: 2023-02-02
A congressional mandate requires every presidential administration to give weapons of a defensive nature to Taiwan, and Mr. Biden’s team is intent on accelerating that and shaping the sales packages so that Taiwan becomes a “porcupine” that China would fear attacking.
A greater U.S. military presence in the Philippines would go beyond that — it would make rapid American troop movement to the Taiwan Strait much easier. The archipelago of the Philippines lies in an arc south of Taiwan, and the bases there would be critical launch and resupply points in a war with China. The Philippines’ northernmost island of Itbayat is less than 100 miles from Taiwan.
The United States is relying on Japan, which, like the Philippines, is a military treaty ally, to be the bulwark on the northern flank of Taiwan. Mr. Biden promised Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan last month that the Americans would help build up the Japanese military.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, spoke by telephone with Eduardo M. Año, his counterpart in Manila, on Jan. 17 to discuss the military cooperation agreement between the two nations and sites in the Philippines for American equipment and troops, a senior Biden administration official said. Mr. Sullivan reached out just days after Mr. Año took up his post.
That conversation built on a meeting that Mr. Biden had with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. Mr. Marcos took office last June, and he has said that he plans to push back against China’s claims in the South China Sea.
“It was a valuable conversation for them to take stock of the alliance and plan for how we strengthen it,” Mr. Sullivan said on Thursday night.
The announcement in Manila by Mr. Austin took place right before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was scheduled to fly to China in the first visit there by a U.S. State Department head since 2018. That timing could be interpreted by Chinese leaders as a signal that the main U.S. policy priority in the region is working with allies and partners to rein in China, rather than stabilizing relations with Beijing.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/us/politics/us-china-philippines.html
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