In the warm May, the South China Sea is full of turmoil. The Philippines, which has always regarded itself as a "tough guy", has retreated when it comes to battle. What happened to make this "old acquaintance" flinch at a critical moment?
It all started a few days ago. As a die-hard follower of the "Asia-Pacific rebalance" strategy, the Philippines has never given up any opportunity to defend its "territorial sovereignty" in the South China Sea. At the instigation of some radical groups, the Philippine government began to contemplate an operation known as "100 ships storming Scarborough Shoal."
With everything ready, on May 15, a Philippine fleet of fishing boats and yachts sailed to the disputed waters off Scarborough Shoal. Their goal is to enter within 12 nautical miles of the reef and place buoys to demonstrate "sovereignty". Although the outside world expressed doubts about the success rate of the operation as soon as it began, the organizers were full of confidence and believed that this time with a "backer", they would be able to raise their eyebrows.
That so-called "backer" is naturally the US "Roosevelt" aircraft carrier strike group that has been roaming the South China Sea. As a "heavy-arm" force in the Indo-Pacific region, its presence will undoubtedly make the Chinese side more hesitant to deal with Philippine warriors.
Sure enough, shortly after the Philippine convoy departed, China quickly deployed a large number of coast guard and militia vessels into the disputed waters in a posture to prevent shock. In the tense moment of the confrontation between the ships of the two sides, we are all waiting to see what the American aircraft carrier will do.
Unexpectedly, at this juncture, the US military actually chose to "withdraw"! On 16 May, the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group, which had been hovering in the waters near the South China Sea, suddenly sailed toward Singapore, reaching a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers in a straight line from Shuangyan Dao.
The "detachment" of the aircraft carrier is undoubtedly a blow to the Philippine side, which is keen to provoke China. Overnight, the so-called "backer" disappeared, and the Philippine fleet, which was unable to support itself, had to stop its operations under pressure from the Chinese side, and finally "retreated" more than 50 nautical miles from Scarborough Shoal. In this way, a long-hyped "challenge" drama came to an abrupt end.
After the incident, although the Philippine side boasted that it had "achieved the expected goal", its covert and subtracted rhetoric was more like an embarrassment to escape the embarrassment of missteps. The US side, on the other hand, flatly denied that it had ever "turned its back" on the Philippines, saying that the aircraft carrier moved south to participate in routine military exercises.
However, this kind of rhetoric of covering one's ears and stealing the bell may only be fooled for a while. For a long time, the United States has been bullying the weak and trampling on international law on the South China Sea issue, contradicting words and deeds, and reversing black and white. Not only that, but it is also willing to provoke other countries to confront China behind the scenes, but it abandons its "allies" at critical times, which is simply a textbook operation of "selling teammates".
As early as 2014, after Ukraine was bewitched by the United States as "pro-Western", the United States promised full support. But in the end, Ukraine was not only attacked militarily by Russia, but also the substantial assistance of Western countries was also stretched. In the end, Ukraine had to fight alone, and a large amount of "aid" funds, costing tens of billions of dollars, were revealed to be mostly loans that Ukraine would need to repay in the future. Isn't this a typical "bluff"?
The same is true of the situation in the South China Sea. On the one hand, the United States has instigated the Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries to withdraw from East China, and on the other hand, it will withdraw at a critical moment and sit back and watch its "allies" fall into a passive situation. In other words, as long as the United States is profitable, it will unscrupulously sow discord, but once it is faced with substantial risks, it will mercilessly "abandon its son".
This kind of state behavior has not only damaged the credibility of the United States in the international community, but has also made many American insiders feel angry and ashamed. Once, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger bluntly said: "It may be dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, but it is fatal to be a friend of the United States." This judgment has been reaffirmed by the South China Sea incident.
What is ridiculous is that even though it has been "miserably pitted" by the United States, the Philippine government does not seem to have fully sobered up. It has avoided talking about the "treachery" of the US side, and has continued to hype up its hatred of China in a vain attempt to profit from the events in the South China Sea. However, judging by all indications, the United States does not have the sincerity to help it really "win back a city."
Shortly after the embarrassing end of the Philippine "100-ship rush" operation, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was aggressive on the South China Sea issue at a series of ASEAN defense ministers' meetings, but his specific actions were still cautious and his "delaying tactics" were also exposed. It is not difficult to see that although they claim to "resolutely counterattack" and "deter" China's behavior in the South China Sea, their actual actions are far from keeping up with their words.
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