US renews warning it will defend Philippines after incidents with Chinese vessels in South China Sea
US renews warning it will defend Philippines after incidents with Chinese vessels in South China Sea
The United States has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels in the South China Sea.
The United States renewed a warning Monday that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a 1951 treaty, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.
Philippine diplomats summoned a Chinese Embassy official in Manila on Monday for a strongly worded protest following Sunday’s collisions off Second Thomas Shoal. No injuries were reported but the encounters damaged a Philippine coast guard ship and a wooden-hulled supply boat operated by navy personnel, officials said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called an emergency meeting with the defense secretary and other top military and security officials to discuss the latest hostilities in the disputed waters. The Philippines and other neighbors of China have resisted Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims over virtually the entire South China Sea, and some, like Manila, have sought U.S. military support as incidents multiply.
To give an idea of how batshit crazy China is being, the international waters they're claiming as their sole jurisdiction extend as much as if the US claimed the entire Gulf of Mexico as its territory.
There's really no defensible argument, so instead they're being belligerent and forceful. They know full well that they have no rightful claim.
China wants to close international shipping lanes in order to control the Asian market. Right now the United States Navy keeps those lanes open, but Chinese aggression is growing. It's similar to Japan in the 1930s in its threat to expand it's empire throughout the Pacific.
I think they’re probably worried about more than shipping lanes.Their three island chain policy is mostly secured, in theory, by their A2/AD (anti-access area denial) strategy of land based anti-ship cruise missles and sea, air, and satellite ISR.
But yes, I agree that the ethos that underpines their perceived need of A2/AD is also what partially motivates these kind of moves.
Well, that and their inability to recognize that one the main factors of American power is our alliances, and ability to apply softpower pressure and true alliance benefits to other nations. We don't just ram our ships into there's to literally beat them into submission.
This doesn't mean that the dark parts of American neo-imperialism don't exist and aren't real, they do and they are, just that you can't be all bad bully all the time and still maintain those kinds of alliance based power structures which are necessary to be a true global superpower, or to at least a large enough regional power capable of dislodging America's role in the Pacific. The former being their long-term goal, and the latter their short to medium term objective.
At this point, all of their neighbors hate them. Not like how South American governments dislike the American government, but really really hate them. Many are building up their militaries and reaching out to America to strengthen their alliances, in anticipation of further Chinese aggression and expansion.
Is it about the shipping lanes or keeping US Navy out?
It's not about keeping the US navy out, it's about having an open lane for Chinese ships to get into the Pacific. The entire Chinese cosst is boxed in by islands (and South Korea) that are staunchly pro-US. World powers have always been willing to fight in order to secure their access to foreign markets and secure trade routes.
It would be great for everyone if The USA and China didn't go to war.
It would also be great if China stopped fucking around.
If the good folks on Lemmygrad or Lemmy.ml could read they would be very upset at this comment.
Fuck around is done, soon they're gonna be finding out
Don't worry, the last time we pledged to defend the Philippines it turns out we lied.
After binge watching Madam Secretary, a 4+ year old prime time CBS drama, which itself is based on events about 15 years ago, it's hard to parse what's real and what's based on real events when things that happened in the show happen in reality so much later. The show got sooo much wrong, but when it lines up with real events it makes my brain itchy.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called an emergency meeting with the defense secretary and other top military and security officials to discuss the latest hostilities in the disputed waters.
After the meeting, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro blasted China in a news conference for resorting to “brute force” that he said endangered Filipino crew members and for twisting the facts to conceal its aggression.
Beijing is hosting the three-day negotiations starting Monday, two Philippine officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to publicly discuss details of the talks.
The Chinese coast guard on Sunday blamed the Philippine vessels for causing the collisions and said the Filipinos were carrying construction materials to strengthen their outpost at the shoal.
Washington renewed a warning that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including “those of its coast guard — anywhere in the South China Sea.”
It blamed the dangerous maneuvers by China’s ships for the collisions and added that they “violated international law by intentionally interfering with the Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation.”
The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Time to deploy the USS Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me
The musical? We still need ushers.
We're spreading ourselves thin.
Our overbloated defense budget was designed for this exactly
No they aren’t
I guess after leaving Afghanistan we've been too long without going to a war.
Statements like this don’t encourage war, they prevent it
America about to be spread thin, maybe don't support those in the wrong to free up resources
The Chinese are in the wrong here. The shoal where this occurred is within the Philippines’ EEZ. China is furthermore ignoring a Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that concluded their South China Sea claims have zero merit.
It wasn't the Phillipinnes I was suggesting were in the wrong.
The US navy has more tonnage than the Chinese and Russian navies combined (which isn't surprising considering most of the Chinese navy is basically fishing boats with guns attached, and the rest is small low-quality chinesium boats that wouldn't be able to withstand a kid throwing a few rocks at it), and the US navy by itself also has a larger Air Force than China's actual air force (almost half of which is helicopters anyways, practically useless for combat in the sea); although if you consider the entire US Department of the Navy (which is Navy + Marines) then they're the 3rd largest air force in the world, behind – you guessed it– the US Army Aviation Branch (mostly helicopters though) and the US Air Force.
Then there's the fact that the US has significantly better military technology available & experience to use said technology and to create more technology, along with the resources to actually utilise it; the same can't be said about China and definitely not Russia. Most Chinese military "innovations" are basically terrible knockoffs of American technology.
Plus the US military has significantly more skilled and higher skilled people available in the military, while rivals (China & Russia) have extremely corrupt military leadership, very little modern combat experience (relative to the US), in general just a very low-skill military and small pool due to authoritarianism & nepotism, practically zero capabilities outside of a small area from their territory.
Based on all of that it's safe to say that it's practically impossible for the US military to be "spread thin", there's no way for anyone to take air & naval superiority away from the US in any location. The US military has more jets, helicopters & naval vessel displacement than the rest of the top 5-10 countries combined. With those vehicles having significantly higher quality (and having been tested out in combat, having issues ironed out) thanks to the US MIC being extremely competitive&lucrative and not really having crippling nepotism or anything similar to that of China/Russia. The US logistics network needs reworking now but it's not that bad lmao. Especially compared to rivals.
Also China is objectively in the wrong here lol, they're directly attacking random Filipino boats for no reason other than China's illegitimate water claims. China loves attacking its dear neighbours constantly because of its shitty authoritarian & imperialist government.
I don't know, the US lost a war it started with Vietnam and very recently made an absolute mockery of itself over the course of 20 years in the middle East only to give the keys over to the guys they went there to destroy.
Supporting Taiwan, The Philippines, Ukraine and the apartheid israeli nation is a lot given the US can't even democratically elect a third in line for the head of state.
Spread thin isn't about equipment but yes even then the US can be spread thin.