The Chinese army said that he had led a patrol in the southern China Sea on Friday, the same day as the American defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, arrived in Manila and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment “in iron” towards his alliance with the Philippines.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Southern Theater Command of the Population of the Liberation Army (PLA) said that he had made a “routine patrol” in the disputed navigable path, according to a report from Chinese state media. He did not reveal the exact location.
The spokesman also said that the Philippines had “frequently sought to rally external countries to make so-called patrols, promote illegal claims in the Southern China Sea, creating instability in the region and deliberately undergoing regional peace and stability.” The command of the southern theater “remains under alert, resolutely defending national sovereignty, security, peace and stability in the Sea of Southern China,” he added.
The PLA patrol was undoubtedly intended to coincide with Hegseth’s visit to the Philippines, which is part of a regional tour which will also take it to Hawaii, Guam and Japan. Friday, in Manila, Hegseth met President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro, during which the two parties discussed the means of strengthening deterrence in the face of the growing power and adventurism of China in the Southern China Sea.
In recent years, China has increased both the intensity and frequency of its incursions in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. This resulted in a series of dangerous confrontations between the Chinese Coast Guard and various Filipino ships, in which Chinese ships struck their opponents or sprayed them with high pressure water cannons.
At a joint press conference with Teodoro, Hegseth said that the weakness of the Biden administration had encouraged China and that President Donald Trump was aimed at restoring the “American army warriors.
“What we are dealing with at the moment is many years of deferred maintenance, of weakness, that we must restore strength and deterrence in several places around the world,” said HegSeth, according to the Associated Press.
“Deterrence is necessary in the world, but in particular in this region, in your country, taking into account the threats of the Communist Chinese,” added Hegseth.
Hegseth has also announced that the United States would deploy “more advanced” defense equipment to the Philippines, including the Navy expeditionary ban system (NMESIS) and “very high-performance surface vessels”, the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
He added that NMESIS, a very mobile coastal anti-navire missile system, would be used during this year’s Balikatan military exercise, which is expected to start on April 21. Ten thousand American troops will participate in the exercises, as well as 6,000 soldiers from the Philippines, Australia and Japan.
Hegseth added that the two nations also agreed to conduct bilateral bilateral training operations “advanced” on Banque, the northern island of the Philippines, which is almost halfway between the island of Luzon and Taiwan.
The Declaration of the Ministry of Defense also included what has become a ritual reaffirmation according to which the Mutual Defense Treaty of the United States -Philippines “extends to armed attacks against the armed forces, the public planes and the public ships of one or the other country – everywhere in the South China Sea” – insurance granted by the first Trump administration in 2019.
In response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Washington “to abandon the mentality of the Cold War, to stop causing an ideological confrontation and to arouse problems in the Southern China Sea, to cease discord and to stop being a troublemaker in the region.”
Hegsth meetings with Marcos and Teodor took place on the same day as the United States, Japan and the Philippines have held maritime exercises in the Southern China Sea. The exercises, officially known as multilateral maritime cooperative activity, took place in the waters off the coasts of Scarborough Shoal.
The exercises brought together the BRP of the Philippine Navy Jose Rizal, a destructive of missiles guided by the American Navy, the DDG Shoup, and a frigate with several Japanese bets, the JS Noshiro. The three ships “sailed in training and communicated by radio”, and a small group of American sailors from the DDG Shoup “used a speed boat to transfer to BRP Jose Rizal and hold discussions with Philippin counterparts,” said AP.
According to the news agency, which was part of the small press body authorized to cover the exercises, the exercises were monitored by a Chinese military ship which “monitored at a distance”. It is not clear if this ship was the patrol announced by the APL on Saturday.
Hegseth’s comments offer another strong indication that the Philippines avoided the worst disturbances inaugurated by the Trump administration, and will remain a priority partner for the United States – largely because it is on the fronts of the growing maritime power of China in a crucial part of the world.
It remains to be seen if the United States can reach “force by force” in the Southern China Sea. Based on the previous past – and the Biden administration is hardly shy to strengthen security cooperation with the Philippines – it is more likely that China will continue to repel what it considers the internationalization by Manila of the dispute from the Southern China Sea.