The United States strengthens its military role in the Philippines to counter China

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Mr. Marcos, the son of former dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, has since said he cannot see the Philippines in the future without having the United States as a partner. At least 16,000 Filipino and American soldiers will train side by side in the northern province of Ilocos Norte, the stronghold of the Marcos family, later this year.

Under Mr. Marcos’ leadership, Filipino officials began to develop contingency plans for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. When former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August, China responded by launching military exercises in several areas, including the Bashi Channel, a waterway separating Taiwan and the Philippines.

Taiwanese officials called it an air and sea blockade.

If war were to break out over Taiwan, the battlespace would encompass the Philippines, Thompson said. China’s moves in the Bashi Channel have really brought that to the Philippine leadership, he added.

The Philippines is also strategically important because of what lies beneath the surface of the ocean. The waters just off the west coast that adjoin the South China Sea, where China has turned a series of sand mounds into military bases, are teeming with underbrush, making it ideal for the stealthy movement of undergrowth. sailors.

You have to control the Philippines because of the submarines, said Michael J. Green, an Asia expert on the National Security Council under George W. Bush who now directs the Center for American Studies at the University of Sydney. . If you can imagine, the underwater topography is the jungle, you can sneak into the submarines.

The United States Marine Corps has offered to look to smaller units in the region that could deploy to remote islands for missile attacks, rear support, counterattacks or intelligence gathering in the event of war with China over Taiwan. Along with the islands of Japan, the islands of the Philippines represent what US military planners consider to be one of the most important locations for such tactics.

I would expect to see rotating access and more frequent deployments of these small Navy teams for joint training and exercises alongside their Philippine counterparts, said Southeast Asia senior researcher Gregory B. Poling. and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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