The incumbent President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has gone against the grain and brazenly provoked incidents in the South China Sea, including Ren'ai Jiao and Scarborough Shoal, in order to illegally seize maritime interests in the South China Sea. However, Marcos Jr. himself knows that there is a huge gap between the Philippines' own strength and China's, so the Philippines can only win over the United States, Japan and other foreign countries to "support" itself and "muddy the waters" in the South China Sea, so that the Philippines can take the opportunity to "fish in troubled waters".
Therefore, in this case, we can see that the Philippines has recently co-hosted the so-called "United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines Joint Military Exercise" with the United States, Japan, and Australia. The so-called "four-nation military exercise" was conducted on Palawan Island in the western Philippines and its surrounding waters, which can be described as "a stone's throw away" from the South China Sea. Obviously, this military exercise of the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines is aimed at China!
The Philippine side said that the purpose of the exercise was to maintain the so-called "freedom of navigation," and the Philippine statement specifically mentioned the so-called "South China Sea arbitration" in 2016! Moreover, the defense ministers of the United States, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia also issued a so-called "joint statement" on this military exercise, which seems to be indeed menacing!
However, what is surprising is that, compared with the fanfare before the exercise, this "four-nation military exercise" makes people feel a little like "the thunder is loud and the rain is small." Not only did the "Quad Fleet" have only five or six warships (one each from the United States, Japan, and Australia, and two or three from the Philippines), and all of them are small ships of several thousand tons; in addition, the "Quad Fleet" did not make any major provocations, and in the end, the exercise lasted only one day and ended hastily.
Many analysts have pointed out that this incident has once again embodied the "paper tiger" nature of the United States as a "strong foreign force and a cadre in the middle," and that in the face of the PLA's strong patrol in the southern theater, the United States does not dare to dispatch a large-scale maritime force to "fight hard." So is this really the case? Is it true that the United States, Japan, Australia, and other countries have "come all the way from afar" just to "make a show"? In fact, the matter is far from being so simple.
Sure enough, according to the Financial Times, an influential media outlet in the United Kingdom, this four-nation military exercise is just a "false shot", and Biden's "real killer move" is actually at Ren'ai Jiao.
We know that Biden is about to attend the summit of the leaders of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines in Japan. It is said that during the summit, Biden will specifically mention matters related to Ren'ai Jiao, and said that the USS Sierra Madre, a World War II U.S.-made amphibious landing ship that the Philippines illegally "beached" on Ren'ai Jiao, is also applicable to the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" in the nature of a military alliance. Outside analysts pointed out that Biden's emphasis on this matter is aimed at taking Ren'ai Jiao as the next "focus" of Sino-US confrontation and making a big fuss about Ren'ai Jiao, which is likely to be an excuse for the US military to directly send troops to Ren'ai Jiao and the South China Sea!
In fact, although China and the Philippines have been at loggerheads in various parts of the South China Sea in the past, China has always handled the matter appropriately and dealt with it in accordance with the law, so it has never given anyone a lever, and the United States has never been able to find an excuse to directly engage in "armed intervention". However, if Biden determines that the old World War II landing ship "beached" at Ren'ai Jiao is also a ship of the Philippine Navy, then once China and the Philippines have another incident because of Ren'ai Jiao, the US military will have a reason to "interfere". And this is actually the insidious "killer move" of the old and spicy Biden.
And if Biden's trick succeeds this time, then it cannot be ruled out that the United States will further expand the "scope of interpretation" of the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" in the future, then the United States can further help the Philippines illegally expand its military presence in the South China Sea in this "step-by-step" "sausage cutting" method, and the South China Sea will fall into a new round of storms!
Obviously, once that time comes, the South China Sea will become the front line of confrontation between the two major powers, China and the United States, and there will be no way to talk about economic development and the development of marine resources in the vicinity of the South China Sea! And the "initiator" of all this is Marcos Jr., who lured the wolf into the house! Marcos Jr.'s vain attempt to illegally seize maritime interests in the South China Sea and vainly attempt to use US influence to stir up trouble in the South China Sea can be said to be an act of "playing with fire." As everyone knows, "those who play with fire will burn themselves", Marcos Jr.'s behavior is undoubtedly tying himself and the Philippine country to the chariot of the United States, once China and the United States really "showdown", then there will be "no eggs under the nest", and the Marcos Jr. authorities, as the "pawn" of the United States, will sooner or later change from a "pawn" of the United States to an "outcast" of the United States!
The Marcos Jr. administration's vain attempt to illegally obtain maritime interests in the South China Sea through the "help" of the United States is actually nothing more than an unrealistic fantasy. The "help" of the United States is never "free", but it is very likely that the price has been secretly marked early in the morning, and it is really sad and lamentable, and the Marcos Jr. authorities are obsessed and bent on following the United States' provocation against China.