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Philippines names 4 new camps for US forces amid China fury
- Two new sites infuriate Chinese officials because they would provide US forces with a staging ground close to southern China and Taiwan
- Another site is in a province that faces the South China Sea, a key passage for global trade that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety
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The Philippine government on Monday identified four new local military camps, including some across a sea border from Taiwan, where rotational batches of American forces with their weapons would be allowed to stay indefinitely despite strong objections from China.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration announced in February his approval of an expanded US military presence in the country by allowing American forces to station in the four additional Philippine military bases under the 2014 Enhanced defence Cooperation Agreement between the long-time treaty allies.
The move would boost his country’s coastal defence, Marcos said. It dovetails with US President Joe Biden administration’s effort to strengthen an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan.
The new sites identified by Marcos’ office include a Philippine navy base in Santa Ana town and an international airport in Lal-lo town, both in northern Cagayan province. Those two locations have infuriated Chinese officials because they would provide US forces with a staging ground close to southern China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.
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The two other military areas are in northern Isabela province and on a local navy camp on Balabac island in the western province of Palawan.
Palawan faces the South China Sea, a key passage for global trade that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety and where it has taken increasingly aggressive actions that have threatened smaller claimant states, including the Philippines.
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China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes over the busy and resource-rich South China Sea. Washington lays no claims to the strategic waters but has deployed warships and fighter and surveillance aircraft for patrols that it says promote freedom of navigation and the rule of law, angering Beijing.
03:30
US to gain expanded access to Philippine military bases in bid to counter China
US to gain expanded access to Philippine military bases in bid to counter China
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