The summit held between US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Philippines President Bongbong Marcos in Washington on 11 April saw a deliberate attempt by the US to spread political instability – with a potential for military conflict – into East Asia. This follows on from US “freedom of navigation” military exercises in the South China Sea – wrongly termed because no country in the region has in fact prevented, or threatened to prevent, navigation in the South China Sea.
Alongside those military exercises the US publicly admits to China states that in 2023 there were over 1,000 US overflights in the South China Sea while US carrier strike groups and amphibious groups entered it eight times in 2023, with at least 11 nuclear-powered attack submarines and two nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines in and near the sea. As it is around 12,000 kilometres from the United States, it’s difficult to imagine the South China Sea as a “defensive” region for the US.
Around the summit, the US, Japan and the Philippines announced plans to conduct trilateral military exercises in the Pacific region in the coming year with President Biden declaring: “United States defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are iron clad.” The South China Sea is over 3,000 kilometres from Japan....