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ah, my british manager, welcome to d. w. news asia. glad you could join us. the united states has committed to defending the philippines, including in the south china sea. the word used iron club. it's what president joe biden said to philippines, president, footman, macos junior, during the 1st white house visit by a philippine leader in 10. yes. the commitment comes at a time that manila is facing increased chinese assertive base in the south china sea. beijing unilaterally claims almost the entire expense of water as its own. a claim shown here by this red line. this includes islands, which manila claims sovereignty over sovereignty. that's increasingly being challenged by beijing. on the south china sea, a tense standoff comes to a head. a chinese coast guard ship steams directly in front of

a philippines patrol vessel. cutting off his journey toward the nearby sprightly islands. the collision corps set by the chinese, despite earlier communications in the nation, the law, we have a meeting, according to our request, the said we're from our board regulations over the over the 1st the relationship from china and of the we hope you can co operate with our do not take a appropriate behavior which we are a are fair with mass times karen. the philippines ship was on its way to territory, claimed by manila, in the sprightly islands claims contested by china, which claims full sovereignty over all islands and features in these waters. a

fiercely disputed stance that's getting a new pushback from manila since taking office last june, philippines president 3rd man. marcos junior has insisted that china will not trample on philippines. right at sea level during a visit to beijing and january marcus. and his chinese counterpart. she's paying agreed to a friendly handling of maritime spats. but just weeks later, the philippines accused china, a blinding a coast guard crew with a laser light, middle is choice to go public with the footage. a new strategy to confront chinese aggression. on the world stage. marco says also moved to strengthen the philippines military alliance with the us. in april, the 2 countries held military drills which included the 1st ever live fire exercise on territory in the south china sea, a demonstration of joint fire power. that's drawn beijing's ire. now in washington,

marcos was met with a warm welcome from us president joe biden, and a pledge of military support. united states also remind aren't claire nor remains, aren't clerk amendment to the defense of the film, including the south china sea biden and marco's said, this commitment means honoring a decades old mutual defense pact. closer security ties between the 2 countries have been in play for months. earlier this year, a manila granted the u. s. access to several additional philippines spaces in arrangement that strengthens the philippines, defense capabilities and grants. the u. s. a stronger foot holt, to counter what it sees as the biggest potential threat in the south china sea region. a possible invasion of tie one by china. joining me now for more context on this is author columnist and political scientists. richard ha. darian

returned an iron clad commitment from the us to defend the philippines, including in the south china sea. does this make the philippines safer or increased chances of a real confrontation with bridging? well as far as the statement, iron clad is concerned, this is kind of a shade, medically shade that the united states use this. we not only treat the, like the philippines, but we hear also doctor, when the united states dos about its relationship with gulf countries, persian gulf countries in the middle east, for instance. so i think that war, it doesn't care as much water, except when the, by the administration player buys the parameters. so it's michelle defense. tricky with the other beans. and this is something that has been quite vague all the way from the nixon administration until the obama administration, but from the late trump years to 5 years now, the americans are opposite the peer, you filipino aircraft vessels or soldiers come under attack in the south. china sea,

not vaguely in the pacific, but in the south, tennessee that will be covered by dimensional defense treaty by the united states. and that's particularly important in light of what has been happening over the past few days. that will be coast guard, accusing try and harassing them and the harassment by the chinese schools. where dawson was caught by a number of jordan ellis, where a company the philippine coast guard. and few months ago you hot chinese worship reporting the point in the military. great laser, the filipino patrol vessel also in the contested areas of the south china sea. so this, this tension is give a certain point, nancy to this iron club statements by dividing ration, but what comprises an attack on philippine phil? as i mean, what you're talking about is something that is in our report as well. let's look at the confrontation between the chinese coast guard the philippine coast guard, if it were to pause to the chinese coast guard, rams, philippines, a coast guard vessel accidentally, or otherwise would that constitute an attack. and hence,

the mutual defense treaty would come into play. yes, a since 2019 because there was an order incident back there were by a suspected chinese militia for us actually rami the philippine efficient vessel and on the sand doesn't seem to be the feature folks of that incident actually made me think about the precise guidelines on that overseas or alliance. so one of the issues that it's still being discussed because we still have to upgrade our mutual defense tricky. come up with new guidelines is a so called gray zone attacks. so green on the tops concern cases for bi, you're not looking at, you know, chinese vessels shooting down to see if there's been aircrafts or using guns or firearms. but actually using something, it's just short of that, but course it's still in nature. this is something that the pentagon and or philippine the counterparts have been seriously discussing, but that will be a very, very, let's say for model process because we really have to pin down what are you going

to be the guidelines that will go for in the application of the michelle defense re now there is the dispute with china in the south, tennessee, and then there are us china tensions over taiwan. and i almost get the impression that the former is really what is important to manila. but it might not have much of a choice when it comes to involvement with the latter. that is over taiwan. do you agree? my sense is the charlie is right now is to get a goal. the last level of american military presence in the philippines. if you look at the statements play, marcus, you nor he constantly talks about this basis will not be. ready use for offensive purposes that will not be a staging. 2 ground it's constantly talked about the head of this meeting with by then this week that he was dollar trade and investment. so market junior is very conscious about not provoking china. so a good the loves presence means that there's not americans and in philippines,

sites under the defense corporation agreement to make trying to think twice about whether invading taiwan or bullying. the philippines were aggressively in the sol genesee, but you want to make sure they're not too many americans, or more importantly to aggressive american weapon systems to broke, provoke, china. and as far as i know, we're still negotiating, how many american troops can enter the philippine basis under the ethical and what kind of weapon systems they can put. is it some artillery system or patriot? we sell systems, those things matter. they're operational, logistical, but up, huge strategic implications. as the market you're still not really committed. you know, you talked about staging, post for military action and present macos saying that they doesn't want the philippines to be used as a staging force. but as you really get the choice when he is a treaty ally of the united states. yeah, this sort of argument comes in whereby the administration officials would say this is about the parents. after all, you better be prepared and deter,

rather just pretend that you're neutral when chinese not couldn't treat you neutral . if it things come down to an invasion in the philippines will be treated as the us are late according to try. and i will respond, or actually preemptively deal with the philippines. so better just, you know, dime, if you do dime, if you don't try to better just get prepared for it. but the better argument actually there is that, you know, if the philippines tweaks and twists the level of exist access at several times, but with the u. s, then maybe it will be effective and the jury, china. but one thing i really want to talk about your is that everyone talks about the invasion of tie one, what the philippines has prepared for is also grades on brits that trying to put posted to philippines. you know, we could talk about cyber at, after talking about economic sanctions. there are many things that china can do to develop is to retaliate against this. why didn't security cooperation with the united states? and i think those are the things that marcus has to be prepared for, because i personally don't get all the war in the short terminate. my sense is

that's also the calculus of mar goes, but he has to prepare the philippines for grades on retaliations by china. and on that he asked to get maximum insurance and training and backup from the united states. how prepared is money left for any of the grades on tactics should paging jewels to respond to these latest meetings between president biden and brett, macos yeah, the term we use actually sharp power. so we're not only looking at harassment of our vessels and it's all trying to see we're not only looking at cyber attacks against the philippine creek getting through soft realty, looking at brings as china, you know, using its influence over a regional over norsen, local government officials are to push agenda against what manella once for the whole country. that's something that the syllabus has to really be referred for vulnerabilities. extremely high 40 percent of the philippines. national grid is controlled by chinese company. chinese engineers are running

a lot of critical infrastructure in the for being trying to telecom via i. filipino partner is also in the philippines has even towers inside military facilities in the philippines multiple times, the philippine maine, a part i just shut down this year. so deval there, bit these tremendous. that's what, let's hope mark was really prepared for. always playing with fire. you know, president michael junior was in beijing of the start of the year. he was meeting president though she, after the latest meeting with president biden. where are philippines? china ties, right. so just the other week, the chinese foreign minister visited the philippines to do the kind of troubleshooting. but it seemed that meeting didn't really go that far after the end of the meeting, all the 2 sides with agreed to was just more communication, china, which is what we had an abundance of abundance of under former president. that was extremely close to china. so it looks like the bilateral relationship is in total crisis right now. but still,

china has an option. marcus will try to reach out to try and i don't know what he's been offering them. but more importantly, the question is, what he's trying to offer. the philippines because they offered, they really gave the philippines nothing in those 6 years that the re, externally trauma, mid president did that. so i think marcus wants to go back to the chinese again, sooner than later. but he wants to go there with the bargaining. she said that the u. s. alliance could be a bargain, and she also, in his dealings with china, all of the pleasure talking to ritual. thanks so much for joining us today, richard durham. and that does it for to is of course, a more on our website which you have tomorrow with guardians of truth. my name is john dinner and i have paid almost every price of being a journalist in a country like turkey. taking all the powers that be they risk everything.

john dunder asks activists, journalists and politicians living in exile is too much on my shoulders. but i have to hold this weight because i'm responsible for the future of our country, for the people who are behind the past. they look for their mission. people need to know what is happening in our series guardians of truth watch now on youtube, d. w documentary ah, good public pay tensions in the u. k. begin to cool off. a majority of unions covering nurses has agreed to a new pay package. but what about teachers, passport officers and others will take a look? also on our show, europe wants to produce more semiconductors at home,

a groundbreaking in germany looks to be a step in the right direction. blown welcome to the show. i'm seeing busy in berlin . it's good to have you with us. could tensions be lowering in the u. k, after months of labor strikes? the british government said tuesday, we'll implement a new pay deal covering more than a 1000000 nurses. after a majority of unions voted for the offer. however, other nursing unions have rejected the deal. while teachers unions are talking about ratcheting up their walk out this year, buquet government resistant unions, man, so far it may look like it could be a busy month for strikers. hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have been taken parted strikes in recent weeks. with many more industrial actions plant, it's one of the strongest strike waves in the united kingdom. in decades. persistent double digit inflation and backbreaking cost of living crisis continue to take a toll on the lives of the millions in the u. k.