Calling on China to cease-and-desist it “provocative and unsafe conduct,” the White House told China to back off in the South China Sea, nearly getting into a collision with a Philippine’s Coast Guard vessel. China has continued to engage in provocative actions in the South China Sea, most recently due to Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visiting the White House. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his Indo-Chinese colleagues to stay clear of any alliance with the United States, something Biden has begun to cultivate. With all the trouble with intrusive Chinese patrols in the Taiwan Strait, Biden sought to undermine China’s influence in the Pacific Rim. Biden has grown more concerned about a possible Mainland invasion of Taiwan. Telling the press Sept. 23, 2022 he would commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan, Biden violated the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
Two days before Biden is due to host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said the China must stop its “harassment and intimidation of the Philippine vessels in the contested waterway,” serving notice to China. Biden has been threatening the PRC over Taiwan for over a year since 83-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Taipei. “We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct,” Miller said, referring a recent maritime incident in the Taiwan Strait. Since Pelosi’s visit and, more recently, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to the White House March 31, China has been sending fighter jets and warships into the Taiwan Strait, letting Taiwan know it holds sovereignty over the Island of Formosa. Former President Jimmy Carter signed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act into law, recognizing only one China, the one in Beijing.
Biden’s statement that he would send U.S. troops to defend Taiwan breached over 40 years of “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan. Since ending the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, Carter placated Beijing, hoping to further business ties between Beijing and Washington. With Biden funding an active proxy war against the Russian Federation with no end in sight, pushing China to the brink on Taiwan is a reckless gamble in the region. No one believes that if the U.S. sends troops to defend Taiwan, it would be an easy conflict to end. Biden’s belligerent rhetoric increase the chances of a confrontation with Beijing. Fighting a two-front war, one in Ukraine and the other in Taiwa, would stretch the Pentagon to the breaking point. Biden has zero influence over Beijing after accusing Communist China of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Western China.
Biden’s attempt to cobble together Pacific Rim nations to potentially confront China was met with hostility in Beijing. Biden wants to develop an Indo-Asian type NATO, hoping that other nations would join his coalition to confront China’s growing influence. Former President Barack Obama sued China in the Hague’s International Court of Arbitration, winning a 2016 judgment assuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Beijing promptly rejected the ruling, saying it would not compromise its sovereignty. Since Xi asserted his right to sovereignty over Taiwan, Biden has tried to entice other Pacific Rim countries to join an anti-China coalition. No country, including Japan or South Korea, wants any part of a war with China to defense Taiwan. Generations of U.S. presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower have armed Taiwan since the 1949 Maoist Revolution.
French journalists working for Agence France Press [AFP] witnessed the incident aboard a Philippine Coast Guard boat where they were nearly rammed by a much larger Chinese vessel. Philippine’s BRP Malpascua, carrying Philippine journalists in the Spratly Islands, observed a Chinese Coast Guard vessel sail into its path, attesting to the China’s aggression in international waters. China claims the Spratly Islands and archipelago of shallow sandbars as its own territory, despite the Hague’s 2016 ruling saying the area was international waters. Malpascua’s captain said the Chinese Coast Guard vessel came within 45 meters [50 yards] of a collision. China insists the Philippine Coast Guard vessel encroached on China’s sovereign territory, an area deemed international waters by the International Court of Arbitration in 2016. Manilla said that “routine patrols in our own waters can be neither premeditated nor provocative.”
Unlike his predecessor, authoritarian Philppine ruler Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos wants more cooperation with the United States. Marcos has reestablished relations with Washington, while, at the same time, not wanting to join any war against China over Taiwan. Marcos met with Biden sending the message about the “need to tone down the rhetoric over the South China Sea, Taiwan and North Korea.” Marcos wants improved relations with the United States but doesn’t want to make enemies of China. Marcos hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for talks in Manilla aimed at defusing tensions in the South China Sea. Marcos doesn’t want to get sucked into the current war of words between China and the United States. Marcos wanted his Indo-China neighbors to know he’s not planning to start collaborating with the U.S. at the expense of the Philippines long, historic ties with China.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
