Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said the US would gain expanded access to military sites in northern Philippines close to Taiwan, as well as in Palawan province near South China Sea, paving the way for greater US presence in key locations as tensions with Beijing linger.
Marcos said at a televised briefing that the four additional sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) are “scattered around the Philippines” and would be identified once formalized with the US.
The new sites are meant to “defend” the main Luzon island’s eastern coast, as well as some areas in the south, the president said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Local politicians who initially opposed the sites have “come around to support” the plan to expand US access after talks with the national government, he added.
Governor Manuel Mamba of Cagayan Province, where US forces might be allowed to stay with their weapons in up to two Philippine military areas, said Marcos has the prerogative to make the decision.
However, he added that he remained opposed to allowing the Americans to base in Cagayan, which lies across a sea border from southern China and Taiwan, because that could turn his province into a key target of the Chinese military if an armed conflict involving the US military breaks out over Taiwan.
“It is the president’s call, not mine,” Mamba said. “But I maintain my stand against any foreign forces stationed in my province. Still, I am against EDCA sites in my province.”
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said that regional countries “should stay vigilant and should not be used by the US side.”
“The US, out of its zero sum mentality, has built up its military capacity, which jeopardizes the regional peace and stability,” he told a regular news briefing.
The US last month secured access to four more Philippine military sites amid continued tensions with Beijing over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
China has criticized the plan, with its embassy in Manila describing it as part of US’ attempt to “encircle and contain” Beijing.
Marcos has been bolstering his nation’s longstanding defense alliance with the US that was strained under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. The US and the Philippines are planning joint patrols in the disputed sea, and are scheduled to hold bigger military drills next month. Their top defense officials and diplomats are also set to meet in Washington in the middle of next month.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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