China's Increased Bullying of Philippines to Test US Resolve :: Gatestone Institute

China's Increased Bullying of Philippines to Test US Resolve - Gatestone Institute - Lawrence A. Franklin 

• "Despite the allegedly warm atmosphere of the San Francisco Summit between China's Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and US President Joseph Biden, the Chinese dictator reportedly told Biden, "that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided," and "that China's preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force."
• It is clear that Xi is doubling down on his claim of sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, starting with Taiwan, and understands that he might have only a few "good" months left...

China's repeated targeting of the Philippines appears possibly related to Manila's decision to grant the US expanded military presence in the Philippines, by granting the US military access to four additional air and naval facilities, raising the number to nine. 

The newly installed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reversed his predecessor's policy: appeasing China...