China-Philippines-US Confrontation
The China-Philippines-US confrontation took a new turn over the weekend. At the Shangri-La dialogue, the trilateral war of words between China, the U.S., and the Philippines renewed. That is Asia’s premier defence summit in Singapore. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) organizes it. Speaking at a session, Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr denounced China’s illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the West Philippines Sea. He said, “Our efforts stand in stark contrast to assertive actions that aim to propagate excessive and baseless claims through force, intimidation and deception. Also, we have submitted our assertions to rigorous legal scrutiny by the world’s leading jurists. So, we draw the lines on our water not just from our imagination, but from international law.”
At the Shangri-La dialogue, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to refocus attention on China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific. He met his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, in a bid to cool friction over issues from Taiwan to China’s military activity in the South China Sea. The Philippines, a sprawling archipelago and a U.S. treaty ally is at the centre of an intensifying power struggle between Washington and Beijing.
Jing Jianfeng, the Deputy Chief of China’s Central Military Commission retorted, “These small cliques will ultimately lose more than they gain. The Americans themselves even say, ‘speak softly and carry a big stick’. The United States often uses partnerships as a small profit to lure regional countries into becoming its agents. And then tricks them into paying the bill. Whether it is the ‘Saigon moment’ or the ‘Kabul retreat’, many of the United States’ partners have become victims. The U.S.’ self-interested nature has been fully exposed. Also, this reminds me of a famous saying by the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, ‘it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
(With Reuters inputs)
