U.S. media officials announced that "the situation in the South China Sea has escalated", and U.S. and Philippine officials revealed that "actual combat military exercises will be held in disputed waters of the South China Sea" The content of the exercise exposes the intention of attacking the island
As evidenced by the rumors released by some US media before, after the trilateral summit of the United States, Japan and the Philippines, they did make big moves to follow up.
The "Wall Street Post" reported information from US government officials, saying that the United States and the Philippines are intensively preparing for the upcoming large-scale, actual combat joint military exercises.
U.S. officials have characterized that "tensions are escalating in the South China Sea" and that the military exercises are a joint response to the threat by the United States and the Philippines.
As for the military exercise, US officials also revealed that the exercise area will break through the territorial waters of the Philippines and enter the disputed waters of the South China Sea, which is the first time since 1991, and more than 16,000 military personnel will participate in the activities, and the exercise will start on April 22 and end on May 10, nearly three weeks.
In addition, the Philippine Navy's shipborne missile weapon systems imported from the United States will also take part in the exercise to test its combat readiness, and the US and Philippine militaries will also sink a target ship converted from a retired warship during the exercise.
From the above information, it is not difficult for us to see that the nature of this military exercise is not ordinary; in the past, the United States and the Philippines have been conducting normal and abnormal military exercises, but most of the exercises are not of any actual combat nature, and the content is nothing more than the plane pulling out to fly twice and engaging in a joint cruise, or some small-scale, After all, although the South China Sea is large, there is no buffer space around the disputed waters, and the United States and the Philippines will also have some scruples about some activities that may arouse China's vigilance, and they have not held joint military exercises of a real combat nature in the approach of the Nansha Islands for more than a decade.
For example, during World War II, on the eve of Germany's declaration of war on the Soviet Union, the German army used military exercises as an excuse to carry out operations on the border, and Japan's launch of the 918 Incident was also a similar process.
Although this possibility may not be high, and the outside world does not have enough information to correctly judge the specific status of the US-Philippine military exercise plan, objectively this military exercise has a definite military threat to China, and no one knows whether the Americans will fake it until the boots hit the ground, and even if they don't, the US side obviously intends to test the reality through this ambiguous action, mobilize China's military forces on the front line of the South China Sea, and test China's military preparations.
US Colonel Michael Rogig, who participated in the exercise, told the media that the participating troops of the US and Philippine militaries will launch amphibious landings on three islands, which has no other meaning, but if an island is occupied by the enemy, we can recapture it.
In addition to the U.S. and Philippine militaries, 14 other countries, including Japan, Australia, and India, will send military officers to observe the exercise.
On April 17, in response to the news of a new round of actual military exercises between the United States and the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded: The Philippines should be soberly aware that attracting foreign countries to show off force and provoke confrontation in the South China Sea will only exacerbate tensions and undermine regional stability.
In order to guard against military risks and prevent the possibility of any fake show, this level of actual combat exercise is not much different from launching border frictions! The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will inevitably "observe" this military exercise from a safe distance throughout the entire process, as it has done in some similar situations in the past.
And according to the virtues of the Americans, if they find that the Chinese side has not taken any action and has not taken precautions after the exercise, they will definitely not stop easily, even if they don't do it immediately, at least they will follow up and cut sausages, and we are already very familiar with this set of scripts, for example, if we forcibly break into Ren'ai Jiao, forcibly consolidate and expand the forward stronghold with beached warships as the core, even from the perspective of border conflicts, the US and Philippine militaries have a lot to do.
This time, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos warned China that if there were casualties among Philippine troops in the South China Sea dispute, the US military would intervene militarily.
It can be seen that the United States and the Philippines have clearly defined their purpose and division of labor, the purpose is war, and the responsibility of the Philippines is to detonate the conflict. And if they want tensions to escalate, we have to admit that what they're doing is turning the South China Sea into another potential powder keg.
It is very ironic that the US colonel, who participated in the organization, coordination, and formulation of the US military landing warfare exercise in this exercise, and revealed the news to the media, said: "This exercise is not aimed at China, there is no such meaning, even if there is no China in another parallel world, we will do such a thing."
From landing on the Nansha Islands, to attacking warships by the Navy and Air Force, sending troops to the islands, using mobile rocket artillery to cooperate with the troops to fight frog jumps, and a series of military moves aimed at the strategic situation of the Nansha Islands, this is not a defense at all, but a test of the ability of the US and Philippine forces to jointly attack the Nansha Islands.
The U.S. military moves in the South China Sea are far more worrying than their actions in the Taiwan Strait two years ago, because the Spratly Islands are far away from Chinese mainland, and the military posture in this region is very different from that in the Taiwan Strait, surrounded by more than a dozen US military bases in the Philippines, and the military posture will be more favorable to the United States than the iron barrel in the Taiwan Strait. That is to say, if the Biden administration has the idea of military adventure, the South China Sea is indeed a relatively easy breakthrough to open the situation, the domestic economy is sluggish, the pressure on the Chinese economy is rarely effective, and the election market is also unclear.