Recently, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. encountered an extremely embarrassing scene, and an American reporter asked him face-to-face: Do you really believe that the United States will choose to go to war with China in order to help the Philippines? In the face of this soul torture, Marcos visibly fell into a panic, and after hesitating for a long time, he still did not say anything, and finally could only say that he wanted to avoid this issue.
[Marcos Jr. was tortured by the soul of an American journalist]
From this, it is not difficult to see that the Philippines actually has no bottom on the so-called commitment of the United States. At the trilateral summit a few days ago, the Philippines shouted that it hoped that the United States would invest $100 billion in the Philippines in the next five to 10 years.
In addition, the United States has unveiled a plan for the Luzon Economic Corridor to promote the development of the Philippines. According to the U.S. side, the economic corridor will connect major areas in the Philippines such as Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas, and build modern infrastructure including railways and ports in many places to attract more high-quality investment to settle down; in May this year, the United States and the Philippines will also hold the first business event for the project in Manila, and some U.S. financial companies have said that they plan to set up regional offices in the Philippines to increase investment in the Philippines.
Judging from the current economic situation of the Philippines, this move by the US side is obviously a relief in the snow, but in fact, the US side is "drawing a big pie" for the Philippines:
[The Biden administration "paints a big pie" for Marcos Jr.]
First, in the past few years, although the United States has been emphasizing greater investment in the Philippines, the reality is that this is not the case. In 2019, for example, U.S. investment in the Philippines was only $226 million, and even in 2023, the total U.S. investment in the Philippines is not expected to exceed $1 billion. As a result, the United States is now proposing to invest $100 billion, and the likelihood of it being realized is almost zero.
In addition, the US aid package of 80 billion yuan for Ukraine has not yet been approved; at the same time, there is still an "unfed" Israel in the Middle East, waiting for the United States to send it a steady stream of weapons and funds; moreover, the current economic situation of the United States is also facing difficulties, and there is no spare money left to invest in the Philippines.
Second, the so-called Luzon Economic Corridor project of the US side has actually been completed for two years. In 2021, the United States and the G7 launched the project, and from the outset it claimed that it was a plan for China's Belt and Road Initiative. But in the two years since, the project has not progressed significantly. Today, the United States has not even changed the name of its investment plan, and continues to fool the Philippines with this "big pie".
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And 10,000 steps back, even if the United States has the intention to promote the project, from the actual situation, the possibility of realizing this "big pie" is not large: on the one hand, the Philippines itself has huge problems, such as power supply shortages, serious internal corruption, lack of high-tech talents, backward technical facilities, etc., on the other hand, the United States is currently facing a critical moment in the presidential election, Biden is a "sworn enemy" If Trump wins the election and the Republican government comes to power, it is still unclear whether the United States will continue to maintain close ties with the Philippines.
In fact, we all know that for the United States, it does not matter whether these "big pies" can be implemented or not, and they exist only to make the Philippines willingly act as its puppet to contain China.
Recently, the United States and the Philippines have been making more and more moves, not only deploying medium-range missile systems on Luzon, but also holding joint military exercises next week. It is worth mentioning that this military exercise is full of aggression against China.
In terms of scale, the exercise will bring together at least 16,700 officers and soldiers to participate, which is larger than ever before. For the first time, the exercise was conducted 12 nautical miles off Philippine territory, mainly facing the mainland's Taiwan Island and the South China Sea. And in the course of the exercises, the armies of the two countries will simulate the disoccupation of the islands by the so-called "hostile forces", and plan to sink a target ship in the process. It is worth noting that the ship selected by the Allies as a mock target was actually a decommissioned tanker of the Chinese Navy.
[The United States and the Philippines hold the largest joint military exercise in history]
Whether it is the deployment of missiles or this military exercise, the purpose of the US side is obvious, which is to use the Philippines to drag China into the vortex of conflict. But for the Philippines, once the conflict breaks out, it will face the fate of becoming cannon fodder, although the United States claims to help it in accordance with the so-called U.S.-Philippines defense treaty, but the example of Ukraine is in front of us, and whether the U.S. commitment can be relied on, the result is obvious. In this case, Marcos Jr. himself knows very well that once a conflict breaks out, the first to slip away will definitely be the United States, but now that the Philippines has boarded the "thief ship" of the United States, it is very difficult for Marcos Jr. to "untie" it.
In fact, for the current Philippines, there is still a possibility of turning back, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has repeatedly stressed during his recent visit to Indonesia that we should cherish and maintain the hard-won peace in the South China Sea, and continue to work with ASEAN to accelerate the finalization of the code of conduct in the South China Sea. For the Philippines, it is undoubtedly not a good choice to go back and keep pace with ASEAN, depending on whether Marcos Jr. has the determination.