Since the summit of the heads of state of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines was held in Washington on 11 April, a small circle of containment of China in the Asia-Pacific region has basically been formed. The Biden administration made it clear that "in the next five years, the United States will provide $2.5 billion in military assistance to the Philippines, mainly to improve the Philippine military's coastal defense, long-range firepower, unmanned aerial systems, etc." With Biden's promise, Marcos returned to the Philippines with his head held high, and continued to project his tough image on the South China Sea issue.
On April 22, the "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint exercise between the United States and the Philippines finally kicked off, and in addition to the United States and the Philippines, France and Australia also sent some personnel to participate in the exercise. Dramatically, Philippine press spokesman Rogeco revealed some details of the exercise: "In the naval attack exercise, the decommissioned supply ship 'Lake Cariraya' will be targeted." The "Kaliraya Lake" was built by Zhongxing Shipyard in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, and then sold to the Philippines as a civilian oil tanker, and in 2014, after a series of operations by the Philippine side, the ship became a supply ship of the Philippine Navy. Since Marcos came to power, he has held high the banner of anti-China and actively moved closer to the United States politically, especially since 2024, and has repeatedly provoked China on the South China Sea issue.
Although the Philippine side has repeatedly stated: "This exercise is not aimed at any country. "But judging from the recent performance of the Philippines, this is undoubtedly a cover-up. In this exercise, the C17 "Globemaster" transport aircraft, C130 transport aircraft, Seahorse rocket artillery and other equipment will be unveiled, covering Palawan Province, the Luzon Strait, and the west side of Luzon Island near the South China Sea, with 16,000 soldiers participating in the exercise, including 11,000 US troops.
It seems to be a huge momentum, but in fact, it is strong on the outside and capable in the middle, and the United States and the Philippines may be the most effective in this exercise is the "Typhon" medium-range missile system. This missile system is capable of launching Tomahawk, Standard, LRASM anti-ship missiles, etc., and is claimed to be able to intercept ballistic missiles or hypersonic missiles launched by China or North Korea. Now that NATO troops have ended up in Russia and Ukraine, this is no longer an open secret. The Russian army also does not hesitate to use its "Dagger" hypersonic missiles against NATO forces. If the U.S. military is really capable of dealing with the "Dagger", the NATO troops on the Ukrainian front line will not be bombed everywhere. The Dongfeng-17 hypersonic missile, which China is currently equipped, is only stronger than the "Dagger" in terms of performance. It can be seen from this that the United States and the Philippines are only putting on a show around China, and they cannot even handle the Houthis in the Red Sea, and the United States and the Philippines are not capable of setting off storms and waves in the South China Sea.
It is worth mentioning that an audio imitating Marcos was exposed on Philippine social media, with the audio content reading: "If China attacks the Philippines, the Philippine military will take action, Filipinos cannot be allowed to be harmed by China, and we cannot make any compromises in order to protect what is rightfully ours." As soon as the audio leaked, the Philippine Presidential Communications Office issued a statement overnight: "Marcos has never issued a similar order, and the Filipino people need to be more vigilant against disinformation." "Now that the missiles have been delivered to the doorstep, in the face of fake news from a self-media person, the Marcos government's response is a bit of a fuss, and whether Marcos deliberately did it behind it is worth discussing.
Last year, the Philippine government approved the addition of four U.S. military bases to its territory in response to Chinese actions in the South China Sea. With the current disparity in strength between China and the Philippines, only four additional US military bases will not bring the Philippines a sense of security, and you must know that the United States has been gradually withdrawing the F-35 fighters deployed on Okinawa last year, fearing that they will be hit by Chinese medium-range missiles.
China has never relinquished its sovereignty over the South China Sea, and the Philippines' attempt to encroach on China's territory in the South China Sea at the instigation of the United States will never succeed. Nowadays, the international situation is complex and changeable, and the attention of the United States is mainly in the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.