In order to better deal with China, the Marcos Jr. government has come up with crooked ideas. Wrote three letters to the United States, hoping that Biden would be generous and send a warship to the Philippines. In the face of this nonsensical demand, the US side has not yet replied, and Marcos Jr. has to inch in and put forward a new demand.
The Philippines' operations in the South China Sea have been rather unsmooth in recent times. Not long ago, he was beaten by the water cannon of a mainland coast guard ship, and now he plans to do it again. And after countless beatings, they realized that the biggest disadvantage of the Philippines in the competition with China was the problem of equipment. So, Marcos Jr. had a crooked idea in his mind.
On October 15, local time, according to a number of Philippine media reports, Rodriguez, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, sent three letters to the United States Secretary of State, the United States Secretary of Defense and the United States Ambassador to the Philippines. And the content of these three letters is almost the same. They all put forward the same demand, that is, they hope that United States can provide the Philippines with a warship free of charge to support Philippine operations in the South China Sea.
In the letter, Rodriguez was also unkind, and directly indicated that the warship he wanted was the "Philippine Sea" missile cruiser. Looking at the name, you can see that there is a close relationship between this warship and the Philippines. According to related reports, this warship is named after the "Battle of the Philippine Sea" in World War II. It entered service in 1989 with a displacement of about 9600 tons and is equipped with the Aegis system for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Judging from these parameters, this warship is still quite bluffing. At least in terms of size, it can wrestle with the mainland's large coast guard ships. However, we have to take into account its service life, which is 35 years ago. The United States built a total of 27 warships of its class, and now two-thirds have been decommissioned. And this one is expected to be decommissioned in 2025.
So why is such an "old and dilapidated" ship about to be decommissioned targeted by the Philippines? According to Rodriguez, this warship has a lot of fate with the Philippines in terms of name and meaning. If the U.S. side is able to donate free of charge, it will "further strengthen the firm commitment and strong friendship between United States and the Philippines." But I think what he said was purely untrue. Friends who know a little about the Philippine government know that with their inertia, they are eyeing this warship just to see that it is about to be decommissioned and that the US military is preparing to replace it, in an attempt to make United States send "kindness."
But then again, this ship has been in service for 35 years, even if the United States is willing to give it, what is the use of the Philippines taking it. Those who ask this question may have greatly underestimated the extent to which the Philippine government is disgraced. According to reports, in addition to proposing to United States that it hopes to obtain warships free of charge, the Philippine side also said that it would be best to renovate the warships before the United States transports them over.
For these two nonsensical demands of the Philippines, let alone the United States, even I can't stand it. So until today, the United States has not replied to the Philippines, and it is estimated that it will not be dealt with later. After all, the warship cost nearly $1 billion, and although it is about to be decommissioned, if it can be refurbished, why don't United States keep it for its own use.
But having said that, this incident also reflects that the Marcos Jr. administration still has ambitions for the South China Sea. From breaking ships and beaching to now begging for United States to reward warships, their methods are full of tricks, and they are becoming more and more unreasonable. No one knows what new tricks they will come up with next time, and in fact, if United States refuses to give them free warships this time, I don't think we can rule out the possibility that they will buy them from the United States.
Historically, the Philippines has repeatedly received new weapons from the United States. The most well-known are three patrol ships retired from the United States Coast Guard, and last year, the Philippine government bought three retired coast patrol boats from the United States Navy. Coupled with the recent entry of Japan and Korea, the Philippine Coast Guard's arsenal will be fully upgraded in the future, which will make the pressure on our fleet rise simultaneously.
However, I have a lot of confidence in our current fleet. For example, most of the warships provided by the United States, Japan and South Korea to the Philippines are relatively backward models or are about to be decommissioned, and these ships are simply not enough to see in the face of our 0.55 million ton drive, and they cannot form an actual threat. Even if the United States personally came out and had home advantage, we were not afraid.
I would like to tell you a fact, after the farce of the South China Sea arbitration case in 2016, although the Philippines continued to provoke trouble, he and the mastermind behind it, United States, were obviously unable to do anything and could only harass us through some small actions. In the South China Sea, every confrontation between China and the Philippines has ended in a great victory for our side. I firmly believe that in the future, no matter whether the United States ends up or not, this situation will not change.