Tension in the South China Sea simmers after multiple confrontations between ships from China and the Philippines in the vital waterway in recent months.
China could use the South China Sea to gauge the U.S. response to its allies as the communist regime extends its military expansion in the waterway, which is vital to the global economy, according to experts.
Tension in the South China Sea simmers after multiple confrontations between ships from China and the Philippines in the vital waterway in recent months.
In a June 17 encounter, the Philippines said its personnel were injured, and vessels were damaged after a clash between boats from Manila and Beijing near Second Thomas Shoal, part of the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) defense ministry said the Philippine side “deliberately and dangerously” approached its naval ships, causing the collision. The Philippines’ foreign ministry blamed the Chinese authorities’ “illegal and aggressive actions” for the accident.
A 2016 international ruling rejected the CCP’s claim of waters near Second Second Thomas Shoal, saying the island was within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. The CCP, however, dismissed the ruling by the U.N.-affiliated court in The Hague, Netherlands, and refused to participate in the arbitration.
June Teufel Dreyer, an expert on the U.S.–China relationship and professor of political science at the University of Miami, noted that the Chinese regime has long sought to exert pressure on the Philippines.
“The Chinese have been pushing, pushing, pushing on the Philippines for a long time,” she told The Epoch Times on June 22.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte pursued a pro-China policy and switched his position between the United States and China quite a few times, which led to the deterioration of relations between the Philippines and the United States. That changed in 2022, when Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office.
While Mr. Marcos wants to deter the CCP, Ms. Teufel Dreyer cautioned that he has few resources to accomplish that.
By Mary Man
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