𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗧𝗦 𝗕𝗨𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦

 

From the editor:  While watching a news broadcast from the Philippines, I jotted down a few notes.

Certainly, the jostling and bumping of vessels in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China has worldwide implications.

The October 26 collision looked almost staged, as if two large boats couldn't be navigated without running into each other.

While that waterway has long been available to the Philippines, not only for fishing boats but for other commerce, China has been slowly choking that down by creating settlements on the many islands and atolls.

A barrier installed by the Chinese impeded traffic for a bit until a diver from the Philippines cut the cable attaching it to the ocean floor on September 25.

Anyway, what the Chinese have succeeded in accomplishing with their maneuvers and games is to revitalize a U.S.-Philippine relationship that had floundered during the Duterte regime, 2016-2022.

But, now that Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. is running things, two U.S. naval bases will be  constructed in the northern province of Luzon, supplementing the five other military outlets manned by American soldiers on a rotating basis.

BTW, the South China Sea is not only a critical waterway but it covers 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 million cubic feet of natural gas, something else to fight about.