US Ally Stands Its Ground Amid Tensions With China

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says his country will not be “cowed into silence” and has vowed to respond following recent clashes with Chinese forces in contested waters of the South China Sea.

Marcos issued directives and received recommendations during meetings this week with the Philippine defense and national security leadership, he said in a social media post on Thursday.

The Philippines leader said he was in “constant communication” with allies and partners who had offered to help Manila “secure our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction while ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”

Marcos pledged to roll out as yet unspecified countermeasures that would be “proportionate, deliberate, and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating, and illegal, coercive, aggressive, and dangerous attacks by agents of the China Coast Guard and the Chinese Maritime Militia.”

Last Saturday, the Philippine supply boat Uzaimah May 4 and its coast guard escorts were met with an attempted blockade as well as water cannon attacks while carrying supplies and a rotation of marines to Second Thomas Shoal, a hotspot in the Spratly Islands archipelago where the U.S. treaty ally maintains a military outpost—a rusting warship grounded decades ago to stake its claim.

A maritime force compromising Chinese coast guard and paramilitary fishing boats intercepted the convoy, with footage of the standoff showing the Chinese side engaging in dangerous maneuvers and pummeling the Uzaimah May 4 with powerful columns of water.

Manila said the water cannon attack damaged the small boat and injured three Philippine crew members.

Less than three weeks earlier, an equally dramatic supply run had already dialed up tensions in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims include islands and reefs within the internationally recognized exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and other neighboring states.

The Philippines says the Chinese claims overlap with its traditional fishing grounds, crucial to sustaining local livelihoods.

“We seek no conflict with any nation, more so nations that purport and claim to be our friends, but we will not be cowed into silence, submission, or subservience,” Marcos said.

“Filipinos do not yield,” he said.

The Philippines’ foreign affairs department didn’t immediately respond to a written request for comment.

At a monthly press briefing on Thursday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said: “We are fully prepared for any emergency and will resolutely safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”

Wu said Manila’s “harassment and provocations” were the immediate causes of escalating tensions in the disputed waters, and he said “external forces”—chiefly the United States—were the root cause.

Washington has “provoked confrontation, backed up the Philippines, threatened and exerted pressure on China citing the so-called bilateral treaty, and sent military vessels to the South China Sea to stir up troubles,” the spokesperson said.

He warned the Philippines was “straying further down a dangerous path” and that Beijing “will not allow the Philippines to act willfully.”

The South China Sea issue has been gaining traction in the Philippines, where

Recent polling in the Philippines suggests the South China Sea friction has become a major point of concern for many. A majority of respondents in a December poll said they favored using military action to assert the Philippines’ “territorial rights.”

Th recent confrontations at Second Thomas Shoal and other flashpoints have also brought renewed attention to the seven-decade U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with Philippines counterpart Gilberto Teodoro on Wednesday, reaffirmed that the “ironclad” defense pact extends to anywhere in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said.