Recently, the bad influence of US Vice President Harris' visit to Palawan in the Philippines is gradually fermenting. Western media believe that the United States is weakening China's influence by strengthening "non-military investment" in the South China Sea, and the United States pays special attention to the "big move" of fishery disputes and illegal fishing, in a vain attempt to "pour dirty water and provoke trouble" on China through the so-called cross-border illegal fishing problem in the South China Sea. So, the United States suddenly cares about the fishery problem in the South China Sea, what kind of medicine is sold in its gourd? And what is the intention?
Harris meets with current Philippine President Marcos
In Puerto Princesa, Palawan's main city, Harris made a special trip to a small fishing community and talked with poor villagers about the impact of "illegal fishing in big countries" on their livelihoods. The United States will provide an additional $7.5 million in special assistance to Philippine maritime law enforcement agencies to improve their capabilities to combat illegal fishing, conduct maritime surveillance and assist in search and rescue efforts, including maritime patrols in the South China Sea, according to a statement issued by Vice President Harris's office.
Harris visits a small fishing village in the northern Philippines
According to the newly announced assistance plan, the Philippine Coast Guard, maritime law enforcement units and fisheries management departments will also receive "special assistance" from the United States to upgrade their ship traffic management systems to improve their maritime situational awareness, maritime law enforcement capabilities and information monitoring capabilities. Philippine maritime departments and law enforcement agencies are now able to receive real-time surveillance data provided by the U.S. so that they can detect and combat illegal maritime activities in the South China Sea program of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the United States, Japan, India and Australia, and then monitor the every move of the maritime power of major powers, according to Harris's office.
What makes the outside world uneasy is that the United States is gradually pulling Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, into the traps of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative and the Indo-Pacific Situational Awareness Partnership Program. By assisting ASEAN countries in combating illegal fishing at sea, strengthening intelligence information sharing with countries bordering the South China Sea, and constructing so-called "universal combat images", then using the "hands of others" to improve US maritime surveillance activities in the South China Sea, and create a favorable situation for itself to sow discord in the Indo-Pacific waters.
Harris speaks on the island of Palawan
In July, U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Ratner said at the South China Sea Symposium, a Washington-based think tank, that the United States believes that information communication is a powerful tool to fundamentally reshape the "arena" in the South China Sea. Building information connectivity with ASEAN countries will enable the United States to share near real-time satellite data with partners and rapidly process and distribute it through information fusion centers in Singapore, Guam, Diego Garcia, and Australia.
Harris boarded a Philippine maritime patrol vessel
It can be seen that the intention of the United States to launch the Indo-Pacific Situational Awareness Program is extremely vicious, on the one hand, under the pretext of cracking down on illegal fishing, it has brought all countries in the South China Sea closer to itself, and on the other hand, it uses the maritime law enforcement units of these countries to monitor China's normal activities in the South China Sea. With the experience of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States believes that intelligence information support will play an important role in the future maritime battlefield, once the South China Sea parties have friction with China over fishing disputes. The United States will send the coast guard to the scene as soon as possible, and then achieve the role of fanning the flames.
We must see that the Americans often talk about maintaining fishery safety in the South China Sea, and this is by no means a whim, and all indications are that this is a complete set of combined punches. Since 2019, the United States has begun to send several batches of coast guard law enforcement vessels to relevant waters in the South China Sea, constantly intervening in the situation in the region under various pretexts. Recently, the White House released a series of documents pointing to the need to "expand the forward presence of the US Coast Guard in the South China Sea."
U.S. Coast Guard
According to the current statements of the US side, the activities of the US Coast Guard in the South China Sea will inevitably bear the brunt. The U.S. claimed that the U.S. Coast Guard's activities in the South China Sea are, on the one hand, to conduct "freedom of navigation operations" with U.S. Navy vessels to challenge so-called "excessive and illegal maritime sovereignty claims," and on the other hand, to document and expose the "bad behavior" of competitors. In the eyes of the United States, the US Coast Guard looks more "moderate" than the Navy, and the deployment and use of the Coast Guard can reduce the risk of escalation of friction and diplomatic pressure caused by direct military confrontation, and at the same time can give countries around the South China Sea the illusion that "the United States has always been in the South China Sea".
The U.S. Coast Guard participates in U.S. military exercises
At present, the US "Indo-Pacific Strategy" is further mired in the vicious circle of "zero-sum game" and "Cold War mentality", and the various schemes of the US side are not only contrary to the current consensus of all parties in the South China Sea to cooperate and reduce conflicts, but also cause the dilemma of choosing sides for countries in the region. The United States wants to use the fishery dispute to make things and play right and wrong, which itself has miscalculated, but has aroused the vigilance of neighboring countries. They do not want to become cannon fodder and victims of the Sino-US conflict, so we still suggest that the US side not continue to "fan the flames" in the South China Sea, and honestly do its part as a foreign country for the sake of long-term peace and stability in the region.