US key to prevent Taiwan invasion

WASHINGTON — President Biden and his aides have tried to reassure Chinese leaders that they do not seek to contain China in the same way the Americans did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

But the announcement on Thursday that the U.S. military is expanding its presence in the Philippines leaves little doubt that the United States is positioning itself to constrain China’s armed forces and bolstering its ability to defend Taiwan.

The announcement, made in Manila by Lloyd J. Austin III, the U.S. defense secretary, was only the latest in a series of moves by the Biden administration to strengthen military alliances and partnerships across the Asia-Pacific region with an eye toward countering China, especially as tensions over Taiwan rise.

“This is a really big outcome,” said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Society and an adviser to Mr. Biden when he was vice president. “You can better mass forces and project power if you can rotate into those locations in the Philippines.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced a deal to give the U.S. military access to four more bases in the Philippines, bringing the total to nine.

He added that the greater military presence “sends a deterrent message to China.”

Under Mr. Biden, the United States is working to strengthen military ties with Australia, Japan and India, and it has gotten the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to speak out on potential threats from China.

President Biden, standing with President Xi Jinping of China, has said that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan in the event of conflict with China, but his aides insist that the policy of strategic ambiguity has not changed.

Mr. Austin’s announcement signals that the United States could use its own armed forces to push back harder against the Chinese military’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea, where China and several Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, have territorial disputes. More important, they could aid Taiwan if the People’s Liberation Army were to attack or invade the democratic, self-governing island, which China considers part of its territory.

Mr. Biden has said four times that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan in the event of conflict, but his aides insist that American policy has not changed. Since the United States ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has avoided declaring whether it would deploy military forces to defend Taiwan, a position commonly known as “strategic ambiguity.”

A congressional mandate requires every presidential administration to give weapons of a defensive nature to Taiwan, and Mr. Biden’s team is intent on accelerating that and shaping the sales packages so that Taiwan becomes a “porcupine” that China would fear attacking.

Understand U.S.-Philippine Relations

A Complex Alliance: The United States and the Philippines have long had a close — though at times unsteady — relationship. Here’s what to know.

Biden-Marcos Meeting: President Biden met President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines at the White House on May 1, a visit meant to send a message to China as tensions rise.

Countering Beijing: Driven by worry about Chinese aggression, Marcos has been moving closer to the United States, a shift that has made the Philippines the linchpin of Biden’s strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Reviving Ties: In February, Washington and Manila announced a deal to give the U.S. military access to four new locations in the Philippines. In April, the two nations held their biggest joint military exercise.

A greater U.S. military presence in the Philippines would go beyond that — it would make rapid American troop movement to the Taiwan Strait much easier. The archipelago of the Philippines lies in an arc south of Taiwan, and the bases there would be critical launch and resupply points in a war with China. The Philippines’ northernmost island of Itbayat is less than 100 miles from Taiwan.