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<img src = "https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-15/china-war-sm.webp" alt="What the Philippines has at stake in US-China conflict over Taiwan?" loading="lazy" />
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If the Philippines gets sucked into it, the majority of our people would not know why it happened.
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The war would not be on account of any maritime or territorial conflict between China and any of its six other neighbors (the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan). None of these countries are involved except Taiwan, which is the main excuse for the dreaded confrontation. Will Taiwan be reintegrated as part of mainland China or will it keep its separate status altogether? Aside from all the usual questions about any war, this seems to be the real question.
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Since 1949, the Nationalist Chinese government has occupied Taiwan after the Chinese communists took over the mainland at the end of the Civil War. Under the One China policy, Beijing claims sovereignty over all of China, but has allowed the Kuomintang (KMT) party to keep a safe haven on the island. For many years, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, president of the Nationalist Chinese government, used to make a periodic announcement of reconquering the mainland, but this never drew much attention from anyone, least of all Beijing.
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However, it kept Chiang Kai-shek's name alive in the political conversation. 
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In 1971, the United Nations removed Taiwan as a member of the world body and installed Beijing as China's sole legal representative and as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council (the others being the United States, Britain, Russia and France).
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In 1972, US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed the Shanghai Communique that paved the way for the normalization of relations between their two countries. This gave the US and the world to understand that the Chinese people on either side of the Taiwan Strait acknowledged there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of it.
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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-15/nixon-zhou.webp" alt="US President Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast during Nixon's 1972 visit to China" loading="lazy"/>
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(US President Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast during Nixon's 1972 visit to China.)
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In 1975, the Philippines became one of the first governments in the "Free World" to recognize the One-China policy and establish democratic relations with Beijing. Upon President Ferdinand E. Marcos' request, the Communist Party leadership stopped all logistical and material assistance and support to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
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The <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1007/today-in-philippine-history-march-14-1947-the-military-bases-agreement-was-signed" class="news_link">1947 Military Bases Agreement</a> (MBA) with the US was still in force then, as was the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), which remains in force today, but we did not yet have a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that designates China as a possible target of US forces, weaponry and materiel sheltering in our EDCA military sites. At that point the US maintained a position of ambiguity on the issue of defending Taiwan from external attack; it was only after President Xi Jinping announced his plan to reintegrate Taiwan that Joe Biden declared he would oppose such a move by military means. This was the exact opposite of Beijing's non-reaction to Chiang Kai-shek's periodic pronouncements of retaking the mainland.
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What is the legal anchor of Biden's threat? In 1955, during the Cold War when the Soviet Union rather than China was considered the more serious threat, the US and Taiwan (as Republic of China) concluded a Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty. This expired in 1980, one year after the establishment of diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing. But under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US remained committed to Taiwan's defense.
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The US has lately been boosting its defense ties with its Asian allies, even while running a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine. These include Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and especially the Philippines. In the last few weeks, it has assumed control of four new military sites inside and outside Philippine military bases under EDCA. It has also staged its biggest joint military (Balikatan) exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
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But until now the average Filipino citizen has no clear idea why the Philippines and the Filipino people should become part of this looming war. The country's national interest in this conflict has not been defined. Some 7,000 residents of Cagayan province recently came out in protest against two airport bases in that province (one military and one civilian) being designated as EDCA sites; and a growing number of citizens, including retired military officers, have expressed support for their protest.
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The question of Taiwan