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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-23/chinese-destroyer.avif" alt="Chinese Destroyer" />
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(The Type 055 Chinese destroyer deployed August 27, 2024 at Escoda Shoal. )
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<p>
To send a clear message for the PCG vessels to stay away from the shoal, China the other day deployed to the area not just six of its CCG vessels but also one of its most powerful destroyers of the 055 type, its most modern and powerful destroyer-class ship
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<p>
And as in the case of the Aquino III's loss of Bajo de Masinloc 12 years ago, the Escoda case is due to the Philippine government's idiotic moves, bordering on absurdity, to physically claim the disputed shoal and challenge the superpower's naval might.
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<p>
Such a move is totally insane, explicable only if the Marcos administration - as in the case of Aquino III in 2012 - expected the US to come to the succor of Philippine vessels, even if only symbolically, by escorting the PCG vessels from a distance.
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<h4>
Nowhere
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<p>
The Americans were nowhere to help. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's declarations that the <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1695/august-30-1951-the-mutual-defense-treaty-was-signed-by-the-us-and-the-philippines" class="news_link">Mutual Defense Treaty</a> was "ironclad" and that the Americans "had our back" were hollow promises.
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<p>
The US, of course, wouldn't lift a finger to help the Philippines for several reasons.
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<p>
First, China obviously had discovered a novel way of enforcing its sovereignty in the Spratly Islands it controls or wants to control: By maneuvering its ships to block Philippine vessels from entering waters it claims it has sovereignty over and using water cannons to make navigation difficult for these vessels. The Mutual Defense Treaty is silent on whether these actions would be considered an armed attack against the Philippines or against its vessels, for which it is required to act under the treaty.
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<p>
Furthermore, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, decades back, had clarified that the MDT cannot be invoked in conflicts in disputed areas. The US and most countries in the world have officially declared that they are neutral over the conflicting claims of several countries.
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<p>
Second, the US leadership knows full well that interfering in the Spratly Islands dispute, in which China is the major claimant and considers it a core national interest, will lead to armed conflict between the two nuclear powers and eventually to a thermonuclear war that would destroy the planet itself. To risk the extinction of our species because of a Philippine leadership's blunders is insane.
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<p>
Indeed, President Aquino III had tried unsuccessfully to beg for US President Obama's help so we would not lose Scarborough Shoal in 2012. Instead, to resolve the situation, the US tricked the Philippines into abandoning the shoal, by lying to Ambassador Jose Cuisia that the Chinese had already agreed to a simultaneous withdrawal from the area. There was no such agreement.
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<p>
Another demonstration of US aversion to any move that could lead to war with China at this time is the fact that in response to the Philippines' arbitration suit against China in 2012, China transformed the reefs they occupied into artificial islands on which military installations were built. The US could do nothing to stop China's moves, which projected its military power to the center of the South China Sea.
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Marcos loses Escoda; US nowhere to help