US Military is Copying China's Island Base Strategy

The U.S. military is looking to develop a port in the Philippines that would give it increased direct access to strategic islands facing Taiwan, it has been reported—a move one expert told Newsweek Beijing will view as "hostile."

The U.S. is in talks over a proposed port in the Philippines' Batanes islands, around 125 miles from Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its territory, according to Reuters.

The Bashi Channel between those islands and Taiwan is a key route between the western Pacific and the contested South China Sea and would also be a main waterway if China invaded Taiwan.

Filipino officials told the agency that U.S. troops had visited Batanes recently to discuss the port. Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco said that she had sought American funding to build an alternative port there to help cargo ships stopping in during rough seas in the monsoon season.

Manila was among China's neighbors that complained about a map published by Beijing's Ministry of Natural Resources laying claim to land in India, all of Taiwan, and contested islands, reefs and maritime zones in the South China Sea.

But the port proposal could be seen as a U.S. move to counter Beijing imposing itself in the disputed South China Sea where it has fully militarized at least three of several islands built there.

Taiwan Tensions with U.S. Intensify

"Beijing will see any U.S. move to build up ports and facilities in Pacific islands that can be used to support any potential U.S. intervention over a Chinese use of force against Taiwan as hostile," Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at London's School of Oriental and Africa Studies, told Newsweek.

"It applies whether one is looking at a specific case in the Philippines or more generally," he added. "It also applies whether the facilities being built are overtly military ones or ostensibly civilian ones, as they can all be used to facilitate U.S. support for Taiwan in a confrontation."

Mark Montgomery, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) told Newsweek that the plan for the port could induce uncertainty in Chinese planning and risk management. "I think they will counter this by continuing to pressure Philippines using any economic tools they can."

An FDD policy brief in July noted an increase in tension in the region, with China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) deploying a record number of warships near Taiwan that month. The DC think tank said this showed Beijing's plans to maintain "a high operational tempo" ahead of January's Taiwanese presidential election, which could increase "miscalculation between the U.S. and Chinese militaries in the near to mid-term."

The U.S. is looking to increase ties with Asian nations, including the Philippines, to counter China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Washington adheres to the One China policy, acknowledging only one Chinese government, and has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan. But the U.S.'s close ties with Taiwan includes selling arms to it under the Taiwan Relations Act, which prescribes giving the island the means to defend itself.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has sought closer ties with the U.S. than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, allowing the U.S. access to four more military bases, including those close to Taiwan, and announcing joint patrols in the South China Sea.

Batanes was a training site during this year's joint Balikatan military exercises involving more than 17,000 Filipino and American troops.

Marcos Jr. has said the bases under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the U.S. would help in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Manila is concerned would impact the Philippines, given its proximity.

'Washington Is Determined To Encircle China'

Zhiqun Zhu, political science professor at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, told Newsweek the proposed port at Batanes was "the latest evidence that Washington is determined to encircle China and frustrate its ambition to unify with Taiwan.

"This new proposed port, together with other activities around China, will further diminish mutual trust between the two countries."

Zhu said the U.S.-Japan-South Korea summit at Camp David in August and joint military exercises in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea are "perceived by China as the Biden administration's effort to counter China—despite Washington's repeated claim that it does not seek confrontation."

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department for comment.

It comes amid growing concern in the U.S. about China's actions in the region. A poll by Ipsos in August found that nearly a third (32 percent) of Americans viewed China as an imminent threat to the U.S., with 40 percent believing that the U.S. will go to war with China within the next five years.

The survey of 1,005 adults from across the political spectrum had a 5.3 percent margin of error and found that two-thirds of Americans believed that the U.S. should do more to prepare for a potential military threat from China.