Philippine President Marcos began a state visit to China on January 2, 2023, during which China and the Philippines signed a number of investment agreements, and according to publicly available information, since Marcos became president of the Philippines, China has committed to invest more than US$26 billion, much more than other countries. Although Marcos's visit to China received China's investment commitments, Marcos turned his face when he returned to the Philippines, the most obvious being to approve the permission of the US military to use military bases in the Philippines, and the US military obtained the right to use 4 additional military bases, since then there have been as many as 9 US military bases in the Philippines, and the Philippines approved the new authority of the US military when US Secretary of Defense Austin visited the Philippines.
Philippine President Marcos turned his face not only to allow the US military to expand the use of bases in the Philippines, but also to approve the deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in the Philippines, while the Philippines and Japan are negotiating a "reciprocal access agreement", which can facilitate the deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to the Philippines more conveniently, if the "Reciprocal Access Agreement" takes effect, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces will be quite convenient to enter the Philippines, which may be simpler than the US military entering the Philippines. Originally, the Philippines and the United States had the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty", the United States promised to provide security protection to the Philippines, and recently the United States has threatened to use the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" to counter China.
While protesting to China, the Philippines is already negotiating with the United States to join Japan and Australia in joint operations in the South China Sea on the basis of joint US-Philippine cruises in the South China Sea, and draw the United States, Japan and Australia from the Philippines to conduct combat cruises in the South China Sea. 202303066 / Aviation Vision / AZ, previously approved the deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to the Philippines, Philippine President Marcos publicly stated that this is to protect the Philippines' maritime and territorial rights and interests through joint operations, from the Philippines to win over the United States, Japan and Australia, the Philippines is to use foreign countries to contain China, exposing the Philippines' plot, in fact, it is also the US strategy.
According to the news released by the Philippines, since February 2023, China has 26 fishing boats around Sembin Reef and in the lagoon, and there is also a 4,000-ton coast guard ship patrolling nearby, Philippine media said that the Chinese coast guard ship is equipped with 76mm main guns, for the activities of Chinese fishing boats and Chinese coast guard ships in Sembin Reef, the Philippines frankly said that China has de facto control of Sembin Reef and the surrounding waters. In the face of the actions of Chinese fishing boats and coast guard vessels, the Philippines began to hype in turns, in addition to hyping Simpin Reef, but also hype about Ren'ai Reef, the Philippines protested the use of lasers by the Chinese coast guard to blind Philippine coast guard personnel.
In fact, the joint cruise plan of the Philippine side is neither necessary nor difficult to achieve substantive results. Let's take a look at this year's defense budget recently announced by China. According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on March 5, this year's defense budget is about 1,553.7 billion yuan, an increase of 7.2% year-on-year, an increase of 0.1% over last year, which is the eighth consecutive year that China's defense budget has maintained single-digit growth. Compared with the sharp rise in the defense budget of the United States and Japan, China has embarked on a smooth and moderate path. This is enough to confirm China's previous consistent proposition, that is, to take the road of peaceful development, not to seek military competition, let alone to follow the path of Western hegemony similar to "national strength must hegemony", in this case, China will only spend accordingly according to the actual needs of national defense development.
China's steady progress in defense spending is supported by a stable national economy and backed by firm self-confidence as a major country. We have reason to believe that China has the ability to deal with complex situations from its neighbors. Now, the Philippine side should also understand! It is no problem for the Philippines to find a balance between the two major powers of China and the United States and safeguard its legitimate interests. If the Philippines co-opts other countries to make trouble in the South China Sea, it can only shoot itself in the foot. Compared with the previous period when the anti-China forces of the Philippines were popular, China at this stage is no longer what it used to be, whether it is economic size or national defense strength, the Philippines cannot compete with China. In the absence of room for wanton behavior, what the Philippine side can do is to recognize the reality, not to act as the vanguard of the US side to disrupt the South China Sea, let alone think of turning its face with China, and it is wise to pragmatically make measures that benefit China and the Philippines.