I am Chinese as far as I know there were two times PH came so close to become a Chinese colony like Taiwan. I am not talking about the Chinese pirates invasion I am talking about massive sized Han Chinese migration. The first occasion was in 1662 , right after Zheng Chenggong（Koxinga）defeated the Dutch and occupied Taiwan. According to history records at that time there was a massacre against Chinese migrants in Manila by spanish colonizer. After hearing the massacre Zheng went mad and prepared his army for an invasion to destroy spanish in Manila and planned to set up a government there, but just before saling to conquer Manila a sex scandal about his eldest son exposed. Zheng went furious and sent order to Xiamen（his mainland base , where his elder son was）to execute his son. but generals in Xiamen disobeyed his order to kill his heir and then Zheng prepared to go back Xiamen to handle this personally but he got ill and died in Taiwan the following month. the second occasion was in 1683 when Qing navy defeated Taiwan navy（normally still loyal to Ming dynesty ）then the landing invasion of Taiwan was inevitable. Prince Zheng Keshuang（Koxinga‘s grandson）had a meeting with his generals. One option was to surrender； the other was to transfer armies and people to PH as a new base（like what KMT did when they lost civil war to communist in mainland then fled to Taiwan）. Sadly they chose to surrender.
History repeats itself.
@kay chinese are also planning to send an army to the solomon islands. So expect them to claim anything austronesians as theirs.
China would ‘seize’ the Philippines in a war with the US: former military chief Bautista
- The two superpowers would seek to control the Philippines because of its strategic location between the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean
- The retired Philippine general’s remarks reflect growing concerns about China’s encroachment, but he said he was against deploying maritime militia
The Philippines should expect China to seize control of some of its waterways if a war breaks out between Beijing and Washington, according to former Philippine armed forces chief Emmanuel Bautista.
The archipelago’s strategic location with routes linking the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean make it a “key terrain”, the retired general told an online forum last week.
He identified these routes as the Bashi Channel next to the Batanes and Babuyan islands near Taiwan, and the straits of Mindoro, Cebu, Balabac, San Bernardino and Surigao within the Philippine Islands.
“If you want to influence the South China Sea, you need to control these chokepoints,” he said.
Bautista served in the military for over 30 years, and was chief of staff of the armed forces from 2013-2014. He is also a former executive director of the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea, which was created in 2016 by the previous administration to coordinate the efforts of all government agencies in promoting the country’s interests in the maritime zone.
@dyno seato was scrapped after the Vietnam war. Overall seato did more harm than good.
@dyno both pla navy and US navy are calculating each other's response time. The philippines is just caught in the middle.
Chinese ambassador threatens the 150k OFW