“The end goal is still to be able to bring supplies to our troops…to be able to practice freedom of navigation and overflight, without necessarily escalating the situation you’re in,” Brawner said.
In the same briefing, Brawner said the Philippines’ armed forces will also coordinate with a senator who claimed to have knowledge of a Chinese plan to target her country with hypersonic missiles.
Senator Imee Marcos, the president’s sister and head of the senate foreign relations committee, created a stir earlier this week with her video, posted on Tik Tok. She has provided no evidence for the claim.
The Chinese foreign ministry said it does not know where the claims came from, but maintained Beijing adheres to a defensive national defence policy and does not pose a threat to any country.
“Of course, we will never sit idly by and watch our legitimate rights and interests and regional peace and stability being violated and threatened,” Mao said.
Beijing had previously condemned the deployment of a U.S. intermediate range missile system on Philippine soil during joint military exercises in April and May.
An army spokesperson confirmed the Typhon missile launcher remains deployed in the Philippines’ northern islands, and there was no specific date yet as to when it would be “shipped out”.
Manila has sought wider international support on its maritime claims, seeking closer ties with countries to advocate for a rules-based order that recognises international law.
Classic USA puppeteering playbook.
I’m afraid that sends the wrong message to China. China will hear “We are weak and don’t want to fight.” Which translates for them “Our bullying tactic works very well. Let’s keep doing it.”
The Philippines, so named because they were a Spanish colony, was subsequently occupied by the USA. The USA designed a military occupation apparatus to maintain their dominance of the islands that was then repatriated to the USA in the form of the state police system (PA State Police being the first). Since then, The Philippines has been deeply enmeshed in Western geopolitics through economic dominance.
What China is doing is not bullying and The Philippines knows that. What China is doing is pushing back against the West’s bullying in the Pacific and The Philippines is in a long transition away from the North Atlantic’s sphere of influence into China’s sphere of influence. De-escalation is absolutely the right response because the only place escalation goes is the return of Western hot conflict to the region and the continued domination of the region by the Western bullies.
Tl;Dr: Don’t talk about bullies when you don’t know the history of bullying over the last 5 centuries
