
THE JAPAN NEWS |
Published October 30, 2024
The security of the Philippines, located in the South China Sea and close to Taiwan, is vital to the stability of East Asia. The Philippines is increasingly left alone under pressure from China.
Can neighboring countries just stand by and watch the situation?
This month, a Philippine vessel patrolling off Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea was struck by a Chinese ship, damaging its bow.
The day before, at a summit between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said, “We continue to be subjected to harassment and intimidation,” and urged China to stop its coercive actions in the South China Sea.
There are limits to what the Philippines can do on its own to counter China. However, other ASEAN member countries noticeably showed their stance to seek solutions through dialogue rather than criticize China.
China has recently stepped up its summit diplomacy, sending Premier Li Qiang to Vietnam and Malaysia, for example. Both countries have territorial disputes with China, but they are likely to emphasize economic relations with China and be reluctant to move actively to support the Philippines, which is in a difficult situation.
China’s aim may be to divide ASEAN and drive the Philippines, which has taken a prominent hard-line stance toward China, into an inferior position, thereby expanding China’s influence in the South China Sea.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.japannews.ypmiuri.co.jp
RELATED: China ‘will exert more control’ in SCS unless PH finds ‘more consistency’: analyst

Chinese Coast Guard personnel destroyed equipment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and pointed weapons at Filipino troops during the June 17, 2024 resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal. Photo courtesy Armed Forces of the Philippines/file
ABS-CBN NEWS |
Published October 30, 2024
China will “continue to exert more control” over the South China Sea in the coming years unless the Philippines finds a way to have “more consistency” in asserting its sovereignty and policies in the West Philippine Sea, an analyst said on Tuesday.
While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration has been actively pushing back against China’s illegal presence and aggression in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines’ political system does not guarantee that Manila will always keep this stance against Beijing, said Bryce Wakefield, chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
“At the moment, Marcos is playing a very strong end but that’s not gonna last forever,” Wakefield told ABS-CBN News on the sidelines of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s “Australia and the Pacific Security Conference 2024.”
“But that needs to be consistent… It cannot be that China can just think and wait for three years until Marcos will be gone, and some other guy who they can push around will be in his place,” he said.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.abs-cbn.com