By Wang Sheng and He Xianqing

The US-Philippines joint military exercise Balikatan 2024 (Tagalog for "shoulder-to-shoulder") is coming to an end. This exercise has seen some notable changes in terms of scale, scope, content, and deterrent effect, reflecting a further deepening of the US-Philippines military alliance. However, despite being named "shoulder-to-shoulder" to highlight the special bilateral alliance relationship, both sides have their own calculations. The US is merely using the pretext of fulfilling alliance obligations to make the Philippines a cat's paw so it can reap the benefits. Meanwhile, the Philippines aims to leverage the alliance's strength to deter China, thereby achieving its objectives of infringement and expansion of rights.

The main purpose of this military exercise is to enhance military capabilities and strengthen deterrence against China. In terms of the selection of exercise locations, the US and the Philippines intend to coordinate actions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. They claimed that this exercise prioritizes the South China Sea and the Luzon Strait, and for the first time, the exercise area extends beyond the 12-nautical-mile limit into the South China Sea. It is evident that both parties aim to simultaneously enhance their military interoperability and coordination capabilities in the vicinity of the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, intending to establish a coordinated supportive posture in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

It is clear that China is the target based on the agenda of the military exercise. The exercise has set objectives such as sinking the only "Chinese-made" supply ship currently used by the Philippine Navy, retaking islands occupied by hostile forces, and reinforcing freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. The specificity and deterrence of these agendas are self-evident, indicating an unprecedented increase in the military pressure against China. The US and the Philippines stated that the exercise would involve the simultaneous occupation of two islands off the western and northern coasts of the Philippines and they would transport high-mobility artillery rocket systems to these islands for live-fire exercises. Additionally, it is the first time that the US and the Philippines have deployed the new land-based Typhon Weapons System in northern Philippines. The range of this medium-range missile system exceeds 2,000 kilometers and it can pose a threat to China's southeastern coastal areas as well as sensitive areas of the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

The South China Sea is the top priority judging from the scope of the exercise. The Philippine military emphasized that the Balikatan 2024 military exercise would hold four joint all-domain operation field training exercises, many of which would be conducted in hot spots in the South China Sea, including the rapid deployment of high-mobility artillery rocket systems in Palawan Island, and the amphibious assault exercise on the western coastline of Palawan Island that faces the South China Sea.

The agenda and content of the Balikatan 2024 military drill highlight the US and the Philippines' commitment to improving the modernization of the alliance, and also expose their respective calculations.

From the US perspective, the Philippines has a key geographical location linking the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait and can obviously become a key link in its Indo-Pacific chess game. The US hopes that the Philippines can play a key role in its Indo-Pacific strategy, especially as an irreplaceable force in the military deployment of the first island chain.

For the Philippines, the aim of its participation in the Balikatan 2024 military exercise is undoubtedly to use the power of the US to achieve infringement of others' rights and expansion of its own rights. In January this year, the Philippine military proposed a new strategy called the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC), which aims to expand the scope of responsibility of the Philippine Armed Forces beyond the territorial sea and into its so-called exclusive economic zone. The Philippine military said the focus of this year's Balikatan drill is territorial defense. The Philippine military is trying to rely on the power of the US to implement its new military strategy and package its infringement and power expansion in the South China Sea as the so-called territorial defense. In addition, the Philippines wants to use military means to confirm the illegal award of the so-called South China Sea arbitration and introduce more extraterritorial military forces into its so-called exclusive economic zone defined by the illegal award of the so-called South China Sea arbitration, and to achieve a unilateral infringement and expansion of rights.

Although the Balikatan 2024 military exercise is massive, very targeted and deterrent, the risk of being a cat's paw for the US is obviously beyond the control of the Philippines, and it may cause backlash.

(The authors are respectively the president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies and an assistant researcher at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies.)

Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.