New Cold War

We closed down US military bases here following the EDSA People Power Revolution after the Senate voted against the proposal of then president Corazon Aquino to renew the bases agreement.

- BOO CHANCO

The Americans probably didn't mind our decision that much because the Cold War with Russia and world communism was winding down.

Fast forward 35 years later and the Americans are back, not at Clark and Subic but in nine other areas in response to the growing hegemonic behavior of China flexing its muscles as a rising superpower in the region.

China unilaterally imposed their imaginary nine-dash line around the South China Sea, converting it into a Chinese lake. They claimed portions of the sea that international law designates as the exclusive economic zones of countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

China's threat to take over Taiwan by force has also raised political instability in the region.

China is acting like the regional bully because it can. The Economist observed that "in recent years, China has improved the effectiveness of its arms to such an extent that, in some areas, it has already matched or surpassed America."

China invested heavily in its military while the US was distracted by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last month, the Pentagon released its 24th China Military Power Report that reveals new details of the most dramatic military buildup since World War II. Chinese missile attacks could close the runways and taxiways at US forward air bases in Japan, Guam and other Pacific locations. China's intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach the continental United States.

China has been courting many Pacific Island nations like the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Kiribati to spread its control in the area. The US belatedly started to rebuild alliances with Australia, Japan and the Philippines to catch up.