On April 22, 2024, two major incidents took place simultaneously in Qingdao and the South China Sea, where the 19th Annual Meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum hosted by the Chinese Navy was held as scheduled, while in the South China Sea, the United States and the Philippines held a massive "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint maritime military exercise with more than 16,700 military personnel. With the help of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, China wants to build the Western Pacific into a sea of cooperation, peace and development, but the United States and the Philippines are trying to turn the South China Sea into an arena for brawling force and gunboat diplomacy through military exercises, so as to destabilize the situation in the Western Pacific.
It has to be said that at the time when China is hosting the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, the joint military exercises of the United States and the Philippines are aimed at stirring up the situation; in this regard, Zhang Youxia, Chinese military leader and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, directly warned at the opening ceremony that China has no intention of having a cold war or a hot war with any country, but China's territorial sovereignty brooks no violation. Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia's remarks are undoubtedly an explanation of China's position at the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, and also a stern warning to the ongoing US-Philippine "shoulder-to-shoulder" military exercise, so as to tell the United States and the Philippines that if they want to threaten and provoke China at China's doorstep, they will ultimately fail.
In fact, the "shoulder-to-shoulder" military exercises of the United States and the Philippines and China's statements are indeed worth interpreting.
First, from the perspective of the US-Philippine military exercises, the reason why the military exercises were held on April 22 is definitely not purely coincidental, as the US and the Philippines said, because after all, there are not so many coincidences in the world. Two helicopters fell in Japan before, and another helicopter fell last year, if there is an incident, it may be accidental, if it happens one after another, it is undoubtedly an inevitability, and the outside world just does not know the reason behind it. The same is true of the so-called "shoulder-to-shoulder" naval military exercise between the United States and the Philippines, which has been a regular exercise between the two sides since 1998 but is now tense and the date chosen is particularly sensitive. On 22 April, China held the Western Pacific Naval Forum exercise in Qingdao, and the United States wanted to hold a military exercise in the South China Sea at this time to show off its military might, which was undoubtedly to embarrass China and dismantle China's Taiwan. Since the US-Philippine joint military exercise began on 22 April and lasted until 10 May, since the exercise lasted so long, the United States did not postpone the exercise, and the United States and the Philippines insisted on "colliding with each other" with the annual meeting and forum held by China, which is undoubtedly to disgust China.
Second, the goal of the United States and the Philippines to conduct joint military exercises on China's doorstep is also clear: to threaten China and force China to compromise on the South China Sea issue, so that the Philippines can gain super-profits from China in this melee, and then tie the Philippines firmly to the US chariot. The reason why the United States and the Philippines want to hold joint military exercises on China's doorstep is also because the United States wants to support and cheer up the Philippines, after all, the United States knows very well that it is also difficult to confront China by relying only on the Philippines' own strength, and to put it mildly, the Philippines cannot even handle China's maritime law enforcement forces, let alone China's powerful navy. Therefore, this time, the US Navy directly dispatched more than 11,000 people, Australia also sent more than 1,000 people, plus more than 5,000 people from the Philippines itself, and forced together more than 16,000 people to jointly hold a large-scale naval military exercise. The United States wants to tell the Philippines that the Philippines has the United States behind it, so don't be afraid, as long as the Philippines fights for the United States like Ukraine, the United States will never abandon the Philippines, and the United States also wants to embolden the Philippines through this large-scale joint naval military exercise.
Third, the United States and the Philippines chose to hold joint naval military exercises at this sensitive moment, and they will continue until May 10, undoubtedly to show China the cards of the United States. Although the current "freedom of navigation" of the United States in the South China Sea is severely restricted by the development of China's military and the growth of its naval and air capabilities, it is impossible to get the United States to withdraw from the South China Sea and make the "freedom of navigation" of the United States follow China's rules. After all, the United States has been rampant for many years, and if it wants the United States to accept China's freedom of navigation, the United States will not be able to get by, and the US Navy will not be willing to back down. In this case, the United States must find trouble for China in the South China Sea, and must touch China in the South China Sea, but the United States also knows that after the confrontation in the South China Sea in 2016, the United States also understands that China is not easy to mess with, the Chinese Navy is no longer the Chinese Navy of the past, and daring to see red with bayonets is the style of the Chinese Navy. Therefore, the United States has chosen a proxy like the Philippines to frequently stir up trouble in the South China Sea in order to tell China that the United States has many weights and tools to contain and target China, and the Philippines is only one of them, which is also a clear and powerful signal that the United States wants to send to China through the "shoulder-to-shoulder" military exercise.
The US-Philippine joint military exercises, which were held on 22 April and lasted until 10 May, can only be said that the United States is constantly using the strategy of brinkmanship to test China's bottom line, and also wants to involve China in a geostrategic conflict. Therefore, at the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum on 22 April, Vice President Zhang Youxia, a Chinese military leader, directly gave the United States a stern warning: The sea is not an arena for certain countries to show off their force and gunboat diplomacy, and China has no intention of having a cold or hot war with any country, but China's territorial sovereignty absolutely brooks no violation. Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia's remarks are to tell the United States that it is impossible for the United States to provoke the Philippines to plunge China into a geopolitical war like Russia and to plunge China into the whirlpool of proxy wars fostered by the United States. If the United States really wants to replicate this European strategy in China, the consequence will inevitably be the collapse of American hegemony in the Western Pacific, and the United States must clearly see this.