Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew to the United States to participate in a trilateral summit between the United States, Japan and the Philippines, during which he received a commitment from the United States and Japan that the United States and Japan would stand up for the Philippines' claims in the South China Sea, while the United States again threatened to use the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty in an attempt to put a shackle on the PLA. The United States and Japan have issued a "joint statement" that has been a sword guide to the sea through the trilateral summit, especially the "joint statement" that once again reaffirmed the policy of not allowing China to unilaterally change the status quo through force, and there is already a rhythm for China to write a war letter. The United States and Japan will support the Philippines in a number of areas to safeguard its interests in the South China Sea.
Before Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos flew to Washington, Marcos made bold statements about the need for $100 billion in investment. The United States and Japan have committed to promoting the development of the Philippines in the semiconductor industry, and to that end, the United States and Japan will provide training for the Philippines to meet the needs of the semiconductor industry. The Philippines has abundant human resources, and when the United States promotes the "chip war" against China, the Philippines' human resources have become "fragrant and sweet", in fact, the United States also sees the potential of Vietnam and India, and supports the development of the chip industry in Vietnam and India.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is already full of confidence in the support of the United States and Japan, and is still betting that he can control China's rhythm, Marcos publicly said that the agreement signed by the United States and Japan with the Philippines will not affect Chinese investment in the Philippines. Although the United States claims that it has no intention of decoupling from China, it is actually adjusting the supply chain, and the economic and trade cooperation between the United States and the Philippines is aimed at China's supply chain, and the United States wants to weaken the influence of Chinese manufacturing, so the Philippines needs to provide services for the United States, which has the United States and Japan to invest in the Philippines, but from the actual actions of the United States and Japan, if you want to invest in infrastructure, there will be many difficulties.
The Philippines takes the lead in confrontation with China, if the United States does not give the Philippines any benefits, Philippine President Marcos will not be able to account for it at home, in fact, from 2023 to the present, only the Philippines has paid, and the United States has not brought any support to the economic development of the Philippines. The Philippines overestimates its own influence, thinking that if it insists on confronting China, it will be able to gain benefits from the United States, but in fact, the United States is just using the Philippines as a pawn, and the status of the Philippines is the same as that of Ukraine, the United States uses Ukraine to deal with Russia, and at the same time uses the Philippines to deal with China, but Philippine President Marcos thinks that he has taken advantage of China and the United States, trying to gain benefits at the same time.
Marcos visited China in early 2023, during which China and the Philippines signed a huge investment agreement, but Marcos turned around and directly approved the expansion of the use of US military bases in the Philippines after returning to the Philippines, while the Philippines began provocations in the South China Sea. While provoking China, the Philippines also naively believes that China will not reduce its investment in the Philippines, but in fact, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos overestimated his own wisdom. Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has publicly expressed concern about the policies of the Philippine Marcos government, while Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is still very confident.