Pivot reboot

“Biden’s recent decision to push for the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has strong collateral implications in the security of the Asian region.

It is uncanny that US President Joe Biden is pursuing a largely failed program to contain China that, however, only instigated the build-up of structures in the West Philippine Sea.

United States-based groups representing the rabid detractors of President Rodrigo Duterte are demanding that the American government freeze the supply of arms to the country on the pretext that it may draw the lone superpower into an “unwanted war with China.”

The heightened maritime friction near the country is far from “unwanted” in the point of view of the Democrat Biden administration.

Biden’s recent decision to push for the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has strong collateral implications in the security of the Asian region, as it is viewed as the resumption of the Asia-Pacific policy pivot of former President Barack Obama.

The pivot was specifically designed to shift the military focus from fighting terrorism to containing China, which is fast becoming the next superpower threatening the global dominion of the United States.

Biden was straightforward about the pursuit of the Obama-era Asian rebalancing.

“We have to shore up American competitiveness to meet the stiff competition we’re facing from an increasingly assertive China,” the president said.

Reports indicated the US Indo-Pacific Command, which is the US military contingent assigned in the region, submitted a six-year, $27.3 billion wish list to enhance its capabilities. Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan could free up more resources for the Asia-Pacific.

To increase deterrence against China, the Indo-Pacific command plans to create a missile network across the Western Pacific’s so-called first island chain, which extends from Japan’s Okinawa to the Philippines. Accordingly, the revived policy requires the cooperation of regional players, including the Philippines and Indonesia, to set up the arms network.

Former President Noynoy Aquino kowtowing to Obama and deploying the incompetent coup plotter Antonio Trillanes IV for back-channeling, sparked trouble when he provoked a standoff in the disputed waters by introducing a military vessel, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the country’s first true post-Second World War Philippine Navy ship, which was a retired US Coast Guard cutter, in the area in 2012 to run after supposed Chinese poachers.

In April of that year, the acquired vessel from the US intercepted Chinese fishing boats and alleged that these were intruding into Philippine territory despite the fact that since 1997, based on accounts of China newspapers and even Filipino fishermen, there was calm, although uneasy, in the area.

The disputed region used to be shared by fishermen not only among Filipinos and Chinese, but also Vietnamese and Taiwanese as a form of a modus vivendi.

When the Philippine Navy ship was ordered to accost Chinese boats, things changed.

The prevailing view then was that the Aquino administration needed to stir up trouble through the territorial dispute to cover up his shortcomings as a president, particularly his failure to reduce the poverty level and the growing army of the unemployed.

It was also a complete surrender to the whims of Obama, who also obtained from Aquino the Enhanced Cooperation Defense Agreement, which is a critical component of the pivot since it provides for the stationing in the country of American forces and equipment.

The conflict led to the filing of a complaint with the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which issued an award that favored the country, but is largely unenforceable since China did not recognize the proceeding.

Now that Biden is again rattling the saber, the country is again getting the raw end of the simmering rivalry between two giants.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s thrust is to benefit from both the contenders since the country would be the first to suffer in an escalation of the conflict.

Had the approach been in the line of Aquino who refused to dialogue with China, the Philippines will now be a proxy of the US in the friction.

“Now that Biden is again rattling the saber, the country is again getting the raw end of the simmering rivalry between two giants.