The Philippines: Why it is Choosing US Destruction Over Chinese Construction

- The US has dominated the foreign and domestic policy of the Southeast Asian country of the Philippines for decades, having formally ruled the nation as a colony from 1898-1946;

- The Philippines has been used for US military basing throughout the Cold War and is now enlarging its military footprint on the Philippines under the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.;

- It was under President Rodrigo Duterte that the US was being pressured to leave the nation while also expanding closer ties with China who was and still is the Philippines’ largest trade partner;

- Today, infrastructure projects underway during President Duterte’s administration have been literally torn down, instead military bases are being built to point missiles at the Philippines’ largest trade partner, China;

- The US through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has created large numbers of media platforms, political organizations, and education programs meant to convince the Philippine people that serving US foreign policy objectives is in their own best interests;

- The ultimate irony is that these US efforts have convinced Filipinos that fighting China is necessary to protect their sovereignty, when in fact US influence over Philippine foreign policy already constitutes the usurpation of Philippine sovereignty;

- Ukraine provides an example of where this process of the US using the Philippines as a proxy against China ultimately leads if the Philippine people are unable to recognize their current government is serving US interests at the expense of their own interests;

Mirrored - The New Atlas