By Patricia H. Kushlis
On November 16, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke from the deck of a destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, in Manila Bay. She delivered America’s message in Philippine waters docked next to the capital’s shore - the gist of which included a not-so-veiled warning to the Chinese military to play by international rules and keep paws off the barren islands and rich resources resting under the surface of the South China Sea in territory claimed by four other Asian countries in addition to China.
While there have been decades-old overlapping territorial claims among the five (Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and China), China is the single protagonist to have staked out the South China Sea as its own bathtub, a position which runs counter to the US policy of freedom of navigation, the international Law of the Sea Convention, and America’s own economic and trade interests in the region.
In a press conference in Canberra on the same day, President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Gillard announced the intent to rotate units of US Marines on Australian bases for training and exercises as well to increase US military flights out of Australian airfields along the country’s north coast. The six month rotations there are to begin the middle of 2012 with 250 US Marines ultimately increasing to as many as 2,500.
Obama and Clinton then moved on to the East Asian Summit in Bali where all but the leaders of three ASEAN countries spoke in support of the US position on the South China Sea. The strongest statements came from the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore.
The photos tell the story
Clinton’s visit to Manila commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the bilateral US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. That the ceremony was held on a US warship suggested in and of itself a made-for-media story with high profile visuals oozing with historical symbolism. In essence the evocative photos told the story – the contents of the speech were almost secondary.
Put those visuals next to photos of General Douglas MacArthur’s famous farewell “I shall return” declaration uttered upon departure after President Roosevelt ordered him to leave Corregidor Island in March 11, 1942 in the face of an overwhelming Japanese military invasion of the Islands.
Add in the pictures from 1898 when the US Navy steamed into Manila Bay and took the Philippines by force from the Spanish as an almost forgotten part of the Spanish-American War which otherwise focused on the battles of the Caribbean brought on by the Hearst media empire’s yellow journalism of the day.
Yes, there were some 50-70 protestors in Manila who objected to Clinton’s presence last week – but in reality their numbers were negligible in comparison with the mass protests that have rocked Manila in the past.
South China Sea Policy Change
US policy towards the South China Sea changed over a year ago after the Vietnamese and Filipino governments objected to a new Chinese assertiveness in these long disputed waters. Both Southeast Asian governments voiced objections and turned to the US for support. That the US demonstrated this support so visibly and at such high levels was not missed by any of the parties involved. It also provoked – as likely expected – an angry retort from the Chinese.
The Filipinos understood the symbols; the Chinese got the message
The photos of Secretary Clinton speaking from the deck of a US warship in the harbor of its former colony surrounded by Filipino military brass in itself spoke volumes.
Combine Clinton’s speech with Obama’s nearly simultaneously timed press conference in Australia in which he also reiterated that the US had abandoned neither its interests nor its allies in Southeast Asia and Australia. In fact he stressed that the US would up its presence in this immensely vibrant economic part of the globe as the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan finally winds down.
Unlike the controversial and often negative reception to actions of previous American governments in decades past, however, the US defense presence this time around was solicited by the Southeast Asians and the Australians to help the region counter-balance an increasingly powerful China.
For the most part and until quite recently, the Chinese have almost exclusively focused on building trade and aid relations with their southern neighbors – approaches designed to win friends and positively influence the neighbors. This has included the signing of CAFTA or the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement in 2010 as well as financing infrastructure development projects in Southeast Asia’s poorer parts over a number of years.
Yet, as with any large power on the ascendancy and especially one located nearby, the smaller neighbors prefer not to catch pneumonia if and when the elephant or the lion sneezes. Furthermore, their sense of unique cultural and historic identities in this colorful part of globe combines with their singularly strong aversion to colonialism and vassaldom that come to the fore whenever a large beast stirs.
Previous WV posts on this topic by Patricia H. Kushlis:
The US, China and the South China Sea - What's Changed? July 2010