China’s state-media vowed to “make [the] Philippines pay” for agreeing to base more U.S. troops on its territory.
An editorial appearing in the state-run Global Times on Monday said that China “will not accept a small country in the region creating military tensions by playing a balancing strategy. A price should be paid for violating this principle. The Philippines will not be an exception.”
The editorial came in response to a Washington Post report that Filipino and U.S. officials were discussing whether to expand the U.S. military presence on the island. The two countries held a bilateral strategic dialogue in Washington on Thursday and Friday. The United States had a military base in the Philippines until Congress agreed to close it in 1992. Currently around 600 U.S. Special Forces remain in the country mainly training their Filipino counterparts in counterterrorism tactics.
Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario confirmed on Friday that his country was interested in expanding the U.S. military presence in his country but only if the U.S. troops were bound by domestic laws. On the same day, Admiral Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. was looking to expand its network in the Asia-Pacific but was not seeking any new bases in the region at this time. Voice of America reported that the deal under consideration would involve “operating U.S. Navy ships from the Philippines, deploying troops on a rotational basis and staging more frequent joint exercises” without any U.S. only bases.
Nonetheless, the new reports come on the heels of Washington announcing expanded deployments in Australia and Singapore as part of the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia strategy. The pivot comes at a time when China has been increasingly assertive in territorial disputes with its neighbors over the East and South China Seas. The Global Times editorial on Monday also claimed, “The Philippines and Vietnam are the two main countries creating waves in the South China Sea.”
So far, China has responded to the Obama administration’s policy realignment its neighborhood with cautious wariness.
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