South China Sea: US urged to avoid frontal role, enable Philippines to lead

The United States should avoid a frontal military role in countering Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea and instead enable the Philippines to take the lead, according to a report published this week by an American think tank.

Washington has suggested providing armed escorts to the Philippines’ resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, a move which ups the ante on a feature of less than vital interest to the US.

“[This] risks a direct US-China naval clash that can easily spiral out of control,” said the report titled “Defending Without Provoking: The United States and the Philippines in the South China Sea”.

Written by Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South Programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, the report noted that with China’s ongoing volatile and coercive behaviour and the Philippines exercising greater autonomy, Washington “does not hold all the cards”.

“But it can initiate a virtuous cycle of de-escalatory steps, and reduce the risk to American, Philippine, and other lives,” it added.

The report also called on Washington to halt pulling in US allies, particularly extra-regional ones, militarily into South China Sea disputes as this would “counterproductively” heighten Chinese perceptions of bloc-formation and armed encirclement.