Biden warns of S China Sea moves
LONG-SIMMERING tensions between China and its neighbours were in the spotlight yesterday as leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines gathered at the White House to push back on Beijing’s stepped-up pressure on Manila in the disputed South China Sea.
US President Joe Biden announced new joint military efforts and infrastructure spending in the former American colony as he hosted Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos jr and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington for a firstof-its-kind trilateral summit.
Topping the meeting’s agenda was China’s increasing pressure in the South China Sea, which has escalated despite a personal appeal by Biden to Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.
The Philippines and China had several maritime run-ins last month that included the use of water cannon and heated verbal exchanges.
The disputes centre on the Second Thomas Shoal, home to a small number of Filipino troops stationed on a warship that Manila grounded there in 1999 to reinforce its sovereignty claims.
Biden will affirm that a 1950s era mutual defence treaty binding Washington and Manila would require the US to respond to an armed attack on the Philippines in the Second Thomas Shoal, one of the US officials said.
Marcos has successfully pushed Washington to resolve long-standing ambiguity over the treaty by specifying that it would apply to disputes in that sea.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the maritime economic zones of neighbouring nations.
The Second Thomas Shoal is within the Philippines’ 320km exclusive economic zone. A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration found that China’s sweeping claims have no legal basis.
Japan has a dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.
The US plans a Coast Guard joint patrol in the Indo-Pacific region in the coming year as well as joint maritime training activities.
Washington will also place “humanitarian relief commodities for Philippine civilian disaster response” at Philippine military bases, an official said. More joint patrols in the coming months can be expected in the South China Sea after drills by the US, Australia, the Philippines and Japan last weekend, another US official said.
The moves come after two prominent US senators have introduced a bipartisan bill to provide Manila with $2.5 billion (about R46.8bn)to boost its defences against Chinese pressure.
The leaders were also discussing broader regional challenges and economic development, with new investments coming in undersea cables, logistics, clean energy and telecommunications. Facebook parent Meta and UPS are among the companies announcing deals related to the visit.
A new air missile defence network announced on Wednesday involving Japan and Australia and focused on the Indo-Pacific region is still “probably a few years off”, one of the officials said.
Biden’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment will back a new Luzon corridor effort in the Philippines, aimed at infrastructure projects including ports, rail, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains.
China’s foreign ministry said yesterday that the US and Japan had “smeared and attacked China on Taiwan and maritime issues, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and seriously violated the basic norms governing international relations”.