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Laura Zhou

The United States and China have stepped up their efforts to win the affections of the Philippines of late as the two powers remain locked in a fight for supremacy on multiple fronts, not least the South China Sea.
On Friday, the agriculture ministry in Manila announced that a US-funded animal disease laboratory had opened in the Central Luzon region, The Manila Bulletin reported.
Earlier in the week, Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, said he had handed over 5,000 hygiene kits and 16 handwashing stations to the mayor of Manila to aid local efforts to combat Covid-19. That donation came after the US last month provided the Southeast Asian nation with 100 new ventilators.


The latest American charm offensive came just days after a high-profile visit to the Philippines by Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe.
In meetings with his counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana, and President Rodrigo Duterte, the two sides agreed to renew their 2004 memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation, and strive to better manage their disputes in the South China Sea.
Wei also pledged US$20 million worth of non-combat equipment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines on behalf of Beijing.
The grandiose gestures by the US and China highlight the strategic importance the two powers give to the Philippines in the context of their military rivalry, observers say.

Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst with the Rand Corporation, said the Philippines had real significance for the US not only as the host of its largest overseas naval base, but because it was its sole treaty ally with a direct involvement in the South China Sea disputes.
That relationship gave the US “a power projection point that is in the immediate vicinity of the South China Sea that would be extremely valuable in a future conflict”, he said.
“The US could manage without access to Philippine bases, but its power projection into the South China Sea would become more difficult and perhaps less rapid,” he said.


According to Kang Lin, a research fellow at Hainan University in southern China, it was partly because of the strength of that relationship between Manila and Washington that Beijing had been so keen to nurture relations with Duterte, as he was known for his occasional anti-American rhetoric.
Compared with his predecessors, Duterte, who took over as president in 2016, was much friendlier towards China and far tougher on the US on matters of foreign policy, he said.
Over the past four years, Beijing and Manila have signed billions of dollars worth of investment deals and established a so-called consultation mechanism to ease tensions on issues related to the resource-rich South China Sea.
“When disputes over fishing or oil exploration rights have broken out between rival claimants in the disputed waterway, the Philippines has played a key role in helping to reduce the pressure on China,” Kang said. “It is very important to Beijing’s South China Sea strategy.”
US spy planes posing as airliners ‘serious threat’ in South China Sea
Grossman said Beijing had seen an opportunity to pull the Philippines into its orbit and was doing all it could to tear it away from its long-standing ally, the US.
“Doing so could weaken US military agreements with the Philippines that are designed not only to help Manila with its counterterrorism operations, but also counter China’s ambitions and activities in the disputed South China Sea,” he said.
While Duterte is not averse to using anti-US rhetoric – just last week he pledged to prioritise buying Covid-19 vaccines from Russia and China after scolding Western pharmaceutical firms for asking for advance payments – Manila-based academic and policy adviser Richard Heydarian said relations between the US and the Philippines on security cooperation remained “resilient or even robust”.
The US held close to 300 military exercises with the Philippines last year, more than with any other of its Indo-Pacific allies.


US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last year that the mutual defence treaty between the two countries covered the South China Sea, while ambassador Kim said it also applied to the militia and armed civilians Beijing had been accused of using to bully and intimidate rival claimants in the waterway.
In a significant shift in its South China Sea policy, Washington said in July that it rejected most of Beijing’s claims to the disputed waters, effectively backing the ruling made by an international tribunal in The Hague in 2016 that was brought by the Philippines against China.
“Manila’s victory made it easy for Washington to say that Beijing’s nine-dash line claims are essentially null and void,” Grossman said.
China starts military drill as US diplomat arrives in Taiwan
Although Duterte has pivoted towards China there have been questions as to how long the cordial relations between Beijing and Manila can be maintained, especially as most of China’s investment promises remain unfulfilled.
“On one hand, Duterte wanted to reduce the overreliance on the US,” Heydarian said. “On the other, other top officials and the establishment want to make sure he doesn’t pivot all the way to China and undermine relations with the US, especially amid the South China Sea disputes.”
With Duterte set to step down as president in 2022, Kang said it was essential Beijing did all it could now to cement ties with Manila.
“The next president, no matter who it is, is unlikely to be as China-friendly as Duterte has been,” he said.


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South China Sea

US-China rivalry in the South China Sea has the Philippines at its core, observers say

Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe (right) made a high-profile visit to the Philippines earlier this month. Photo: EPA-EFE

=== PHOTO CAPTURED FROM FACEBOOK === US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim personally visited the Del Pan Quarantine Facility in Tondo and handed over the donation to Manila Mayor Francisco ÒIskoÓ Moreno. FACEBOOK.

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A Philippine marine receives an M4 rifle from a US colonel during a handover of brand new military weapons and other equipment in Taguig city, east of Manila. Photo: AP

The U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is anchored off Manila Bay for a reception for top Philippine military and Government officials and businessmen Friday, April 13, 2018 west of Manila, Philippines. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), and several escort ships sailed in the South China Sea in a display of America's naval might during the Chinese sea drills. It later visited Manila and hosted Philippine government and military officials and businessmen in a reception Friday night.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Duterte's actions jeopardize the interests of the 3.3 million-strong Philippine diaspora in America, who contribute some 36.8% of the USD28 billion their homeland gets in annual remittances. Photo: Bellevue Washington / Flickr

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Rodrigo Duterte has been trying to move the Philippines closer to China. Photo: AP

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USS Ronald Reagan leads an American carrier strike group. Photo: US Navy

=== PHOTO CAPTURED ONLINE=== Chinese navy conducted a live-fire drill in the East China Sea amid increasing military tension in the region with the US. The Chinese destroyer flotilla of the East Sea Fleet of People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), exercised for three days in the scenario of 'sudden encounter with enemy in air and surface', the official PLA Naval News said.ÊIt did not specify the location of this drill, but it was probably part of the series of drills 'in the Taiwan Strait as well as on its both ends' as forecasted by the PLA Eastern Theatre Command last week. Photo: Navy.81.cn

epa08375252 Filipino soldiers wearing face shields conduct patrol as the Sun sets along the Manila bay on the eve of World Earth day, Philippines, 21 April 2020. According to reports, the rehabilitation of the murky water of Manila Bay put on hold as the Philippine government engulfed in public health response to the spread of the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 crisis. EPA-EFE/FRANCIS R. MALASIG

Ships of the Royal Australian Navy, Republic of Korea Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and U.S. Navy sail in formation, Sept. 11, to kick off exercise Pacific Vanguard. Photo: U.S. Pacific Fleet

epa08592749 Singapore Armed Forces officers salute from military vehicles in a mobile column driving through a residential area on National Day in Singapore, 09 August 2020. Singapore celebrates the country's 55th anniversary of independence on National Day 09 August 2020, with a scaled down parade due to the COVID-19 disease pandemic, while extending more activities like the mobile column, a drive-past of military vehicles and assets, to heartland areas to allow more people to enjoy the festivities from home. EPA-EFE/HOW HWEE YOUNG

US military bases and positions in Asia-Pacific

Lightning flashes over the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz as it transits the South China Sea July 4, 2020. Picture taken July 4, 2020. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Philip Wagner, Jr./Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine, U.S., June 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner?

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said western pharmaceutical companies are focused on profit, in a warning to those seeking advance payment for a Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: AP

epa08629390 A handout screen grab made available by the Federal Reserve Bank shows Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Chairman Monetary Authority of Singapore, speaking during the virtual annual symposium featuring central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market participants from around the world, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA, 27 August 2020. EPA-EFE/HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Laboratory technicians handle capped vials as part of filling and packaging tests for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, conducted on a high-performance aseptic vial filling line on September 11, 2020 at the Italian biologics’ manufacturing facility of multinational corporation Catalent in Anagni, southeast of Rome, during the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. - Catalent Biologics’ manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy will serve as the launch facility for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, providing large-scale vial filling and packaging to British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP)

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China

Diplomacy


Beijing and Washington know the value of Manila’s and its mercurial leader Rodrigo Duterte’s support, and they are willing to pay handsomely to get it
Despite the Philippines pivoting closer to China in recent years, its ties with long-standing ally America on security issues remain ‘resilient’, says analyst Richard Heydarian



Beijing and Washington know the value of Manila’s and its mercurial leader Rodrigo Duterte’s support, and they are willing to pay handsomely to get it.
