U.S. move in South China Sea jeopardizes regional peace and stability: expert

Special: South China Sea

(ECNS) --- The large-scale U.S.-Philippines military exercise starting from March near the South China Sea shows that the U.S. seeks to cooperate with its allies to intensify deterrence against China and to convince the international community that it still holds a military advantage, an expert from Jinan University told China News Network.

Lin Kaicheng, associate professor at the School of Marxism, Jinan University, as well as deputy director of the International Public Opinion Monitoring Laboratory on Chinese Peripheral Security in the South China Sea, pointed out that many within U.S. political, military, and strategic circles believe America's advantages over the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait are threatened by China, urgently necessitating a change in this situation.

"Through this military exercise, the U.S. attempts to tell its allies that although it has imposed tariffs on allies, it doesn't reject cooperation with them, but rather is eager to strengthen it," Lin said.

By accelerating the deployment of strategic and tactical weapons to the Philippines, the U.S. aims to quickly establish a military edge over China in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. This approach, however, inevitably pushes countries in the region to the forefront of a tense confrontation, Lin noted.

In his view, U.S. approaches toward China, the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait all follow a deliberate pattern: short-term adjustment, medium-term adaptation, and long-term planning.

In the long run, the U.S. is faced with the problem of China-U.S. power contrast in the Indo-Pacific region and even globally, he said.

He further noted that the U.S. and the Philippines emphasize shared values when strengthening military ties.

"Once the U.S. withdraws from the ‘first island chain,' the values-based alliance could provide the Philippines with a new identity, enabling it to remain firmly ‘anchored' in the region like a nail and persistently negatively impact the regional security situation," Lin explained.

Less than 24 hours before the U.S.-Philippines military exercises, a Philippine warship illegally intruded into the territorial waters of China's Huangyan Island. In Lin's view, this is not an isolated incident.

For the Philippines, it attempts to escalate the situation in the South China Sea to gain more political and military support from the U.S., he stressed.

"The Philippines' attempt to influence and steer U.S. policy in the South China Sea through escalating risky actions is highly dangerous," he said.

Lin also pointed out that the Philippine Marcos government's push for a hardline policy in the South China Sea is driven by an urgent need to advance military modernization. From this perspective, arms trade is largely a byproduct of aligned interests between the two sides.

Although both the U.S. and the Philippines have their own calculations in the drills, their moves, whether reinforcing military deployments or provoking confrontational tensions, would ultimately undermine China's territorial sovereignty, maritime rights, and interests, as well as jeopardize regional peace and stability, Lin said.

(By Zhang Dongfang)