Article – Japan, Philippines, US vow to deepen cooperation in face of China’s behaviour
This article highlights an effort to tackle China’s aggressive maneuvers in the South China Sea, that is specifically at stake to the Philippines and Japan. It is known that China has allegedly been responsible for multiple boat ramming and injuries against other ports on the sea. Overall, China is displaying a sort of expansionist mindset as they aim to claim this body of water against the smaller countries it borders. The US as an alliance comes in very handy for these smaller countries threatened by Chinese maritime aggression, specifically for the Philippines and Japan in this case. Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Marcos to further their cooperation in opposing China’s activities in the South China Sea, similar to the United State’s numerous other alliances opposing China’s maritime aggression. Additionally China has also posed aggressive maritime endeavors in Taiwan’s front as well. All in all, China’s intended claim of the South China Sea is stunted with the US backing countries like Japan and the Philippines who oppose such activity and intend to have their share of the waters too. I think it is worth note that Biden’s motivations for making such a call with the two other Asian nations was an attempt to end his term with something notable as opposed to truly confronting China in a way that could threaten direct aggression between the US and Beijing. From China’s lens, I can think of two reasons for their recent violent maritime activity. The first one being that, despite their own internal downturn regarding economy and population growth and ironically stunts, they still need to maintain a strong image externally. China should need to display that they are not a state to be messed with and maintain their power and influence over the smaller East Asian countries. This behavior is usual with any state wanting to maintain power and influence, especially one that is authoritarian. The second reason may be a stretch, but I see this activity with China as a signal to America. It is logical to assume that neither China nor the US want any serious conflict in the South China Sea as it is in both of their national interests to cooperate in terms of trade, although this cooperation looks different for both country’s national interest. While America has its conflicts spread out in the Middle East and Ukraine, this makes any conflict with China regarding South China Sea disputes even less likely from the American perspective. All in all, it could be that China is attempting to place pressure on the US through this maritime aggression to entice possible negotiations over trade, especially when incoming president-elect Trump has pledged to limit such trade even more. Beijing is aware that America does not want conflict, so creating a ruckus in their own waters places pressure on them to come and negotiate on their terms. There’s only so much the US can do to back up China’s opposing countries like Japan and the Philippines before outright conflict takes place over sea disputes.