The News
The US pledged $500 million in military aid to the Philippines to bolster its defense capabilities in the face of China’s aggression in the South China Sea.
US defense secretary Lloyd J. Austin said the “unprecedented” funding — announced during Manila meetings between the two countries’ defense and foreign ministers — showed the Biden administration’s “clear message of support” to the Philippines at a time of China’s hostile maritime actions and political uncertainty in the US.
The aid will likely draw Beijing’s ire: China recently said that it does not take kindly to “third parties” meddling in regional maritime tensions.
SIGNALS
Kamala Harris shares strong bond with Philippines’ Marcos
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, shares an “unusually strong relationship” with Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr., The Washington Post wrote. She was the highest-ranking US official to visit the province of Palawan in 2022, meeting local fishermen impacted by China’s assertive maritime actions. Her high-profile visit was “meant more as a message to China than one to the Philippines, Time magazine reported. “What is happening in terms of unprovoked actions against the Philippine interests in the South China Sea is significant and we have been very clear that we stand with the Philippines,” Harris said last year.
Biden overlooks Marcos family history to strengthen ties in Asia
US President Joe Biden’s administration has embraced Philippines president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in what one Manila analyst described as ““unprecedented love-bombing.” Washington’s overtures to Manila, despite the Marcos “family’s history of brutality and corruption,” reveals that the superpower is anxious about strengthening its Asia-Pacific allies to counter China, Reuters reported in 2023. Especially in Asia, Biden “has made alliance-building a hallmark of his foreign policy” to deter military actions by Russia and China, The New York Times reported. In the event that China tries to invade Taiwan, the US could use one of the military bases in the Philippines as an “indispensable staging point” to aid Taipei, Reuters wrote.