US looks to sites in Philippines to counter China

 Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. is hoping to reach an agreement this week to open as many as four U.S. military sites at Philippine bases in Washington’s latest push to expand its strategic footprint across the region to counter threats from China, U.S. officials said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is meeting later this week with recently elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila and hopes to secure the deal, which would rotate groups of U.S. forces to sites in the country, U.S. officials said.

Two of the sites could be on the northern island of Luzon and in the southwest province of Palawan, the officials said. It is unclear where the other two sites would be or how many U.S. troops would be involved. In return, the U.S. has offered Manila military assistance, including drones, so that Filipino forces could monitor activity in the South China Sea, the officials said.

The deal is part of a broader U.S. effort to position smaller groups of forces across the Asia Pacific, reinforce old alliances and form new ones to counter China’s rising influence in the region.
...

The US has a long history of military bases in the Philippines.  When I was being medivacked from Vietnam after being wounded in combat, the plane had a refueling stop there and some more seriously wounded troops were taken off for treatment there before the plane continued to Guam where I was hospitalized for several weeks.  If there is a concern about China the US might also add more troops to its base in Guam.

See, also:

How America Would Be Screwed if China Invades Taiwan

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