US ally Philippines warns China about ‘red lines’

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has warned China not to cross “red lines” in its relations with its South China Sea neighbours.

“That would certainly raise the level of response. If Filipino citizens are killed in a deliberate act, I think that is very close to what we would define as an act of war, so we would respond accordingly,” Marcos said. “And in fact, our treaty parties have the same standard,” Marcos added, assuming this deadly scenario.

Marcos made the remarks during a question-and-answer session after a keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s largest defense summit, in Singapore. He was asked whether China’s water cannon attacks would be a red line for invoking Manila’s decades-old mutual defense treaty with the United States.

The threshold for invoking the defense pact and drawing the United States into a conflict with nuclear-armed Beijing has become an increasingly hot topic among analysts in recent months. The Marcos government’s resistance to Chinese expansion in the disputed South China Sea has met with a strong response from the Chinese coast guard, which in March injured several Philippine sailors with a water cannon.

Without naming the United States, Marcos added that the Philippines and its partners would take “joint action” and noted that Filipinos had already been injured in the clashes with China, but “thankfully” no one had been killed.

“Once we get to that point, we will certainly have crossed the Rubicon,” he added. “Is it a red line? It will certainly be a red line.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, citing historical rights, and its claims overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The Hague-based international tribunal, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, ruled in 2016 to largely reject China’s claims in the South China Sea. On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning reiterated China’s position that the arbitral award was “illegal and invalid” and said “the world is not turning a blind eye to the truth.”

Newsweek China, the Philippine foreign ministry and the US Defense Department were asked for written comment.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong on the sidelines of the summit, both stressed that America’s defense commitments to its Southeast Asian allies are “ironclad.”