Not to be lonely recently, the Philippines has not only received India's BrahMos cruise missile system, but also held a large-scale "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint military exercise with the United States, and Marcos Jr. has openly threatened China that if Filipino soldiers die in the confrontation in the South China Sea, then the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" will be activated. Marcos Jr. also "used chicken feathers as an arrow" in an attempt to deter Chinese law enforcement agencies, and at this time, the United States also began to step up the deployment of medium-range missiles at Philippine bases in an attempt to threaten China. Jin Canrong believes that China can counter the provocations of the United States and Marcos Jr. with one move, that is, the deployment of offensive missiles on islands in the South China Sea.
Recently, the U.S. Army's 1st Multi-Domain Task Force deployed the Intermediate-Range Strike Capability missile system for the first time in northern Luzon, Philippines. It has been learned that this batch of MRC missile systems was airlifted from a military base in Washington State in early April across 8,000 miles, which shows how much the US military attaches importance to the deployment of military bases in the Philippines.
In order to regain the ability to launch medium-range missiles after the "INF Treaty" expires and threaten a strategic adversary like China, the US Army commissioned the famous US arms giant Lockheed Martin to develop this MRC missile system, which can be carried on a semi-trailer, and can also launch "Tomahawk" cruise missiles and RIM-174 "standard" SM-6 missiles with anti-ship capabilities, and ammunition is very easy to supply. It can be seen that in the future, the United States will deploy more MRC missile systems in the "Indo-Pacific" region, especially in the western Pacific, to further consolidate its so-called "missile defense system."
You must know that the location of the most likely deployment of the US MRC missile system is on Luzon Island, because Luzon Island is not only an important part of the first island chain, but also the island with the most military bases of the US military in the Philippines. According to the calculation of the range of more than 1,600 kilometers of the "Tomahawk" Block V missile, theoretically the US military can hit the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and several large cities such as Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai will face a threat. How should China respond to the U.S. deployment of intermediate-range missiles from bases in the Philippines?
Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of Chinese, believes that China "can take this opportunity to deploy offensive missiles on a large scale in the South China Sea and increase military deployment in coastal areas." If there is a conflict, we will quickly destroy its base." What Professor Jin Canrong means is that since the United States has deployed medium-range missiles at the gate of the South China Sea, it is clearly aimed at the situation in the South China Sea and threatening the Chinese mainland, as the saying goes, "Kou can go to me or go", and the Chinese side can use the excuse of US military deployment to "suppress and frighten" itself, and you can deploy me and deploy, and you can deploy more, because the US base in the Philippines is also so large "capacity", and the PLA can rely on the vast territory to deploy at any time, to see whether the US military is deployed more thousands of miles or the PLA is deployed more at home.
When China really overwhelms the US military in the deployment of medium-range missiles, then the United States will inevitably make shameless demands on China again under the pretext of "maintaining regional peace." At that time, China can just propose that both sides take a step back, which is also somewhat similar to the "white wolf with empty gloves", which can be regarded as a way to counter the deployment of medium-range missiles by the US military around the South China Sea.
Just as the U.S. military stepped up the deployment of medium-range missiles, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. drew a "red line" to China in accordance with the "U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty," claiming that "if Philippine soldiers are attacked and killed in the South China Sea, the U.S. military will intervene." In other words, Marcos Jr. regarded this treaty more than 70 years ago as a "sword of the Shang side", and used threats to trigger the treaty to scare China.
In fact, China is not at all worried about a head-on confrontation with the US military in the South China Sea, and is absolutely capable of winning the confrontation between deterrence and counter-deterrence, as evidenced by the confrontation between China and the United States in the South China Sea in July 2016 due to the farce of arbitration in the South China Sea, which ended in a complete victory for the PLA to force the US military back. On the one hand, at that time, the Chinese side was "fighting" at home, and it was able to face the US military directly in the South China Sea, and it was also able to rely on the deep and vast hinterland of the motherland, and it was supported by a variety of solid combat systems, such as the long-range firepower assault of the Strategic Missile Force, the fire strike of the US aircraft carrier strike group carried by the bomber units of the Air Force carrying medium- and long-range air-to-ship missiles, and the threat of the Navy's submarine force to the US fleet, which constituted a strong confidence of the PLA in the face of a strong enemy.
On the other hand, the US military did not expect at that time that the Chinese side would be so "more serious". The United States originally thought that China would "acquiesce" to the absurd so-called "South China Sea arbitration result" in the face of deterrence, in an attempt to follow up some "operations" or diplomatic counterattacks, but facts have proved that they took it for granted, and they did not expect that China actually sent the PLA to face the US fleet, and the newly formed rocket force was involved in the confrontation for just over half a year.
It can be seen that Professor Jin Canrong's suggestion is not unreasonable, and only by making the United States feel China's firm determination and will to defend China's sovereignty in the South China Sea and its ability to overwhelm the US military with its strength will the local US military be feared, and then shake the US decision-makers to deploy medium-range missile weapons around China in a vain attempt to blackmail China. After dealing with the US military, according to the huge power gap between the Philippines and China, Marcos Jr. can only give up his unrealistic demands and stubborn fighting in the South China Sea, and obediently go to the negotiating table with China to peacefully resolve the South China Sea issue.